The company acquired 80 percent of Liberty Cable in April as a vehicle for its drive into the New York market.

Still, RCN could be a far more serious threat than Liberty Cable.

RCN's plan is to appeal first to customers who already receive Liberty Cable.

Fox has brought an antitrust suit, as has another cable company, Liberty Cable.

Liberty Cable - like the print in its ads - is diminutive.

He said it was difficult for franchised cable operators to match the deep discounts offered by Liberty Cable.

So how did Liberty Cable get into the cable television business without a franchise?

Liberty Cable's basic rate is $12 a month, compared with $21.95 a month for the Time Warner cable companies.

"We would like to make service more broadly available in the region," said Peter O. Price, Liberty Cable's president.

Liberty Cable and Nynex expect to have a formal engineering study available within the next 60 days.