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from: CNET

No price cuts for Verizon, BellSouth DSL customers

By Marguerite Reardon
Tue Aug 22

Verizon Communications' and BellSouth's DSL customers won't see a reduction in their broadband bills, even though a special fee that had been tacked on to bills to pay for a federal program has been eliminated.

from: Telecom Web

We've been seeing much of this Verizon Fios paraphernalia in NYC too, even balloons.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006
TPR's Frank Barbetta: Change of Venue

We hear almost half (nearly 47 percent) of all American food dollars are spent away from home; apparently the marketeers at Verizon Communications have heard this too. A recent promotion campaign for its emerging FiOS network television services in Virginia’s Arlington County - sometimes drifting into Maryland or the District of Columbia - seems to include some unconventional advertising atop the company’s traditional mass media outlets. Leveraging our culinary favorites, Verizon’s ads and promos for FiOS TV are appearing on beverage coasters, coffee containers, pizza boxes and Chinese food take-out bags. And if you make a mess eating or drinking, you can check out some dry cleaning bags with the Verizon messages also.

from: Light Reading

AT&T's Whitacre: 'Nobody Gets a Free Ride'

AUGUST 01, 2006

AT&T Inc. CEO Ed Whitacre spoke to state utilities regulators in San Francisco Tuesday on a variety of subjects, but the one topic he seemed to want to block out was the issue of network neutrality.

Whitacre spoke to a crowd of about 500 state regulators at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) annual meeting. The chair of that group’s telecommunications committee, Tony Clark mixed his metaphors thoroughly, calling network neutrality the “800-pound gorilla in the room” after Whitacre’s speech.

Note; You can download the complete ACLU Complaint at < http://efile.mpsc.cis.state.mi.us/efile/docs/14985/0001.pdf

from: Detroit news

ACLU battles AT&T, Verizon

Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News

from: The Huffington Post

Bad Karma for Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg

Matt Stoller

The entrenched corruption in our political system couldn't happen without a correspondingly corrupt attitude in our corporate boardrooms. The modern business PAC system started in the late 1970s, and I don't think it's a coincidence that corporate power began its (renewed) ascendence in the 1980s. Bribery is bribery, even if it's legal.

from: MultiChannel News

FCC: Telcos Outpaced Cable in Broadband Adds

By Karen Brown7/27/2006 3:55:00 PM

Broadband connections are booming, but there are indications that telco broadband players are outpacing cable operators in the rush to sign up new subscribers, according to the latest six-month status report issued by the Federal Communications Commission.

from: Digital Trends

Telcos Try Viral Lobbying
By Mark Fleischmann
July 27th, 2006

You’ve seen the television commercials urging relief from cable price hikes. A red line on a black bar graph—labeled food, electric water, gas, cable bills—inches steadily upward as viewers are exhorted to lobby their congresspeople for lower cable rates. Who is behind the campaign that includes these TV4US ads and wewantchoice.com?

from: Business Week

Note: An interesting backstory to this Business Week article below. Also, see the source link above to follow the dialogue in the comments.