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from: Jackson Sun

Bredesen may weigh in on fight over cable
The Associated Press

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen says he may get involved in a contentious proposal to change cable permitting rules in Tennessee to encourage broadband access around the state.

Bredesen, a Democrat, stayed out of last year’s legislative fight over the measure that would create statewide franchising rules that would allow companies like AT&T Inc. to avoid having to seek hundreds of municipal permits as it enters the cable TV business.

from: CNET

Should AT&T police the Internet?

By Marguerite Reardon

Story last modified Thu Jan 17 04:00:04 PST 2008

A decade after the government said that AT&T and other service providers don't have to police their networks for pirated content, the telecommunications giant is voluntarily looking for ways to play traffic cop.

More Media on AT&T replacement of batteries
- saveaccess

Our Jan 12th story on the Christmas morning explosion of an AT&T VRAD cabinet in Wauwatosa WI was picked up Tuesday, Jan 15th by LightReading. The exposure led to an AT&T announcement that they would replace all 17,000 Avestor lithium batteries in their U-verse network (across 22 states). AT&T proposed no timeline for this effort but hopefully they will complete the replacement before further incidents.

from: Nashville Scene

Marital Bliss
Are the House speaker and his lobbyist wife teaming up for AT&T?

by Jeff Woods

Even the jaded denizens of the state Capitol are wrinkling their noses at House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh’s intervention in one of the legislature’s costliest business battles ever.

from: Ars technica

AT&T torpedoes its own stock, takes other telcos down too

By Jon Stokes | Published: January 09, 2008 - 11:22AM CT

When you're the CEO of a major telco addressing a room full of very jittery, subprime-weary financial analysts, and you respond to a question about the state of consumer spending by telling them all that you're having to disconnect customers because they can't afford to pay their landline and broadband bills, it's sort of like a theater-goer in a packed house responding to a question about "that smell" by shouting "Fire!"

from: MultiChannel News

AT&T Replacing Vault Batteries After Explosions
U-verse Streetside Units Blew Up in Ohio, Texas, Elsewhere
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 1/15/2008 11:23:00 AM

Municipal officials, long critical of the size and placement of powering vaults needed to back up AT&T's U-verse video service, now have concerns that range beyond aesthetics. Sometimes, the vaults explode.

from: MultiChannel News

AT&T Replacing Vault Batteries After Explosions
U-verse Streetside Units Blew Up in Ohio, Texas, Elsewhere
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 1/15/2008 11:23:00 AM

Municipal officials, long critical of the size and placement of powering vaults needed to back up AT&T's U-verse video service, now have concerns that range beyond aesthetics. Sometimes, the vaults explode.

from: The Street.com

AT&T's TV Efforts Smolder
By Scott Moritz
Senior Writer
1/15/2008 11:59 AM EST

AT&T's sputtering video effort, known as U-Verse, has been hit with a literally explosive setback.

Ma Bell has had four incidents involving smoldering batteries and, in at least one case, an explosion in one of the thousands of network cabinets used for its TV delivery systems, according to a report in telecom trade publication Light Reading.

Wauwatosa residents had expressed safety concerns over AT&T cabinets

Nearly a year before the recent explosion of an AT&T VRAD cabinet in Wauwatosa Wisconsin, some local residents had expressed safety concerns about the large boxes. At a February 12, 2007, City Planning Commission Meeting, residents opposed the installation of a VRAD box and had sent emails and information to the Commission making specific reference to the fires and explosions in Houston Texas.

Note: When AT&T stocks slipped 6% recently, at least one stock analyst blamed it on 'consumer weakness'. Perhaps consumers could use this 'weakness' to their advantage.

from: Gigaom.com

Are Cable and Phone Companies Still Recession-Proof?
Guest Column, Monday, January 14, 2008 at 12:00 AM PT Comments (1)