Cable television competition is coming to Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh City Council today took its final step toward allowing Verizon's FiOS-TV to compete with Comcast within the city limits, voting unanimously for a pact with Verizon negotiated by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration. Verizon now has six years to build out its system and make it available to all city residents.

"Comcast needed competition. Whatever Comcast gave us, that's what we had to accept," said Councilwoman Tonya Payne. "I can almost guarantee you that we'll probably get better service, and you won't be stuck with such high bills."

An amendment to protect Pittsburgh Community TV's funding failed. The use of funds paid by each Verizon subscriber to support public, educational and governmental programming will be determined by an eventual strategic plan to be crafted by the 11-member Pittsburgh Cable Communications Advisory Committee. PCTV will continue to get funding from every Comcast customer in the city.

Funding is "not going away from PCTV," said Councilman Patrick Dowd. "It's going into a trust fund. And the money will be released from the trust fund at such time when there is a strategic plan for the use of that money."

The administration resolved concerns of the Laborers District Council of Western Pennsylvania that Verizon's subcontractors would not be closely monitored for labor law compliance. The administration introduced a resolution to have the Foundation for Fair Contracting, which is backed by unions and some contractors, to help the city investigate any tax dodging or hiring of undocumented workers. There will be no cost to the city for the nonprofit FFC's help, and its work will not be specific to Verizon's contractors.

The resolution on the FFC could come up for a tentative vote next week.