But, San Jose is serviced only by one company the last time I checked. I think you will find it very rare when a consumer can pick between 3 cable companies. The correct direction here is to force cable companies to wholesale their cable access so that consumers do in fact have a choice of cable services as well as upcoming broadband access. Clearly a fair return for the cost of the cable can be realized on a wholesale basic without forcing all consumers to buy one service plan or do without. In fact, a higher return can be realized that way due to a higher utilization of the cable.
Cables are just like cars.
The more people who can use it the higher level of use it is likely to have. It would be stupid to suggest that cars can only be use by one person and they must use that car to drive to work. Autos do not permit that kind of use. The result is that wire or cable based monopolies are simply not justified whenever they can be shared. Same with roads, canals, power lines, etc.