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from: Broadband Reports

Can AT&T Just Ignore New Concessions?
Neutrality advocates cheer, ignore fine print...

Posted on 2007-01-02 16:25:46 by Karl

While AT&T did offer some additional concessions to squeeze through the AT&T BellSouth merger, Kevin Webach (via Techdirt) points out that the post-merger statements by Republican commissioners hint that they may not require the company to actually adhere to them. According to the statement, Tate and Martin believe that "while the Democrat Commissioners may have extracted concessions from AT&T, they in no way bind future Commission action. Thus, to the extent that AT&T has, as a business matter, determined to take certain actions, they are allowed to do so."

Despite some jubilation from the pro-network neutrality crowd, it's not clear that AT&T's 30 month network neutrality promise really means much of anything, since there are no real laws in place, nor clear punishment parameters. It means even less if the FCC, who won't face a recused Conservative majority on future votes, lacks the will to actually enforce their guidelines. Given that Martin has shown that it takes a complete blockade of competing traffic to get the FCC to act -- and AT&T's primary interest is IPTV traffic prioritization -- it's not likely that AT&T's network neutrality promise is anything other than lawyer-speak.