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from: Colombia Tribune

Telecom bill tunes out customers’ needs

J. SCOTT CHRISTIANSON
Published Tuesday, February 6, 2007
The Missouri Senate is considering one of the best-written pieces of legislation to come before it in some time: Senate Bill 284, the Missouri Video Franchise Bill. It should be a good bill, considering how much money AT&T spent to write it.

from: Chicago Tribune

INSIDE TECHNOLOGY
AT&T laying low in bid to launch video services

By Jon Van
Published February 5, 2007

AT&T Illinois is keen to launch video services over its wireline network, but the company is uncharacteristically coy about how it plans to do so.

from: Business Week
INFO TECH

Lightspeed's Slow Start

Lightspeed's Slow Start
Questions dog the new high-speed AT&T network that offers phone, Net, and TV

AT&T is on top of the telecom world. A few weeks ago, chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. put the latest touch on his empire by closing an $86 billion deal to acquire BellSouth. That completed a whirlwind of acquisitions in which Whitacre has virtually remade the old Ma Bell by gobbling up 13 companies over the past decade with a combined price tag of $285 billion, including assumed debt. Last year, investors rewarded "Big Ed's" voracious appetite by bidding up AT&T's (T ) stock price 46%. The cherry on top? Well, that came last month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where Cingular Wireless, the company's cell phone arm, stole the spotlight by partnering with Apple Inc. (AAPL ) to introduce the sleek iPhone.

from: Contra Costa Times

AT&T, Verizon spend millions to access California cable TV market

SAMANTHA YOUNG
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - AT&T and Verizon, the two most dominant players in California's telephone market, spent nearly $26 million to lobby lawmakers last year in a successful effort to access the state's lucrative cable TV market.

from: Multichannel News

Pre-Emptive Strike in Tenn.
By Linda Haugsted1/29/2007

The Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association is countering an AT&T-based state franchising reform strategy before the telco has even submitted a bill in that state.

The cable trade group anticipates a proposal similar to those that have succeeded in other states, moving franchising authority from multiple community governments to a single point of contact at the state level.

Note: AT&T has struggled with it's roll-out of huge telco boxes. It seems AT&T's U-verse is 'your world delivered' in the form of a hulking gray box on the public 'right of way' in front of your home. In the competition with cable, AT&T wins for the biggest boxes and most number of lawsuits they've filed over where they can put them.

from: Journal Sentinel

Note: AT&T has been suing many Illinois Communities over the franchise process and telco box placement. Their behavior is that of a 200 billion dollar thug.

Past articles on AT&T lawsuits in Illinois:

from: Ars Technica

Grassroots or astroturf? AT&T and the politics of influence

12/21/2006 12:36:41 PM, by Nate Anderson

In the course of our earlier reporting on AT&T's attempt to deploy IPTV to the Chicago suburbs, we discussed the Advanced Technology Alliance. It's an interest group that pushes the AT&T agenda hard through letters to the editor and a giant chicken, but local critics have charged it with being an "astroturf" (that is, a fake "grassroots" effort) group funded by AT&T. Ars has now learned more details about the relationship between the two companies.

Note: Another case of the FCC and telecom industry withholding information that might otherwise lead to a better informed and transparent public policy.

from: Center for Public Integrity

Center's Suit To Get Broadband Data Draws Industry Interest, Comment
AT&T, Verizon Intervene in Center's Suit Against FCC

from: Multichannel News

Milwaukee Continues to Talk to AT&T But Moves Ahead With Lawsuit

While the city of Milwaukee remains staunchly behind its decision to sue AT&T over the telco’s refusal to seek a local cable franchise for its U-Verse service, city officials are continuing talks to settle the issue.