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from: Channel 3000

Reality Check: Who's Behind TV Ads About Cable Prices
Group Called "Puppet Of AT&T"

UPDATED: 12:24 pm CDT July 11, 2006

MADISON, Wis. -- A multi-million dollar television advertising campaign is aiming to sway the public and lawmakers to change telecommunications policy.

from: National Journal

The Tangled Net Of 'Net Neutrality'

By Drew Clark

(Friday, July 7) Sometimes it seems that Ed Whitacre has a hard time controlling the words that come out of his mouth.

Last year, the telecommunications titan from San Antonio had carefully paved the way for his company, SBC Communications, to take over AT&T in what was a once-inconceivable reunion of the mother company and her offspring.

from: Technology Daily

Federal Judge Takes Hard Look At Telecom Mega-Mergers

By Drew Clark

(Monday, July 10) The long shadow of the Justice Department's prosecution of Microsoft could ensnare AT&T's efforts to acquire another Bell firm -- BellSouth -- as a federal judge late last week sought to aggressively investigate last year's telecommunications mega-mergers.

from: Multichannel News

Making Book on the Bells’ Promises
By Kent Gibbons, Executive Editor 7/10/2006

In a bid to influence the Telecom Act rewrites underway in Congress, author Bruce Kushnick made his latest “e-book” available to be downloaded for free the week of June 20.

from: Monterey County Weekly

Dialing for Dollars
Telecom industry pumps millions into AB 2987.

Jul 06, 2006
By Ryan Masters

On June 19, state Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez threw out the first pitch at a San Francisco Giants game in AT&T Park. In itself, it wouldn’t be a very newsworthy event—especially since the Democratic lawmaker from Los Angeles doesn’t have much of an arm. But many fear that his recent pitch to the Assembly on behalf of telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon may be a strike against city governments and community media across California.

From Reuters, July 3, 2006

Verizon’s TV Licensing May Be Only Half the Fight

By Ritsuko Ando

Verizon Communications Inc. looks increasingly impatient to roll out its Web-based television service nationwide, suing a Maryland county last week for hampering its entry, but getting licenses may only be half the battle.

Analysts say that while Verizon’s state-of-the-art fiber optic network allows multiple channels of high-definition video and faster downloading, the phone company must show more proof that its multibillion-dollar investment is worthwhile.

from: Red Herring

Verizon’s TV Dilemma

Despite scoring easy wins on Capitol Hill, phone company may not get national TV franchise this year.

June 30, 2006

Faced with a growing impasse on Capitol Hill engineered by supporters of Net neutrality, Verizon Communications is increasing its lobbying and legal efforts at the state and local levels to hasten its entry into the pay-TV business.

Verizon must have the same confused legal and PR strategists as AT&T. On the same day, Verizon releases one press release that applauds the California Senate Committee for the passage of a terrible state franchise - and then another announcing they are suing Montgomery County, Md., over negotiations for a video franchise there. The odd thing about the lawsuit, a representative for Montgomery County claims Verizon hasn't even filed an application yet.

From: NY Times

June 30, 2006
USA Today Backs Off Report on Phone Records

By MATT RICHTEL
In a note to readers today, USA Today backed off an earlier assertion that BellSouth and Verizon had contracted to provide telephone calling records to the National Security Agency.

The note referred to an article published May 11 that said those two companies and AT&T had provided calling records to the security agency, without warrants, for a database it was compiling to detect terrorist activity.

$200 Billion Broadband Scandal is NOW a free download for
ONE WEEK ONLY starting TUESDAY, June 20th. 2006

http://www.teletruth.org/docs/BROADBANDSCANDAL.pdf

Senate Should Stop and Investigate Verizon, AT&T, BellSouth and Qwest’s Broadband and Internet Control and Deployments. – FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL.