AT&T

AT$T Parties Like It's 1999

Posted on December 4, 2007 - 8:49am.

from: Light Reading

AT&T Parties Like It's 1999

NOVEMBER 29, 2007

"You're seeing what was promised in the 90s happen now."
- Randall Stephenson, Chairman & CEO, AT&T

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- It's like the 90s all over again, as AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T - message board) chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said last night that AT&T has used up last decade's excess network capacity and is building for a flood of new demand coming in.

( categories: AT&T )

TN: AT$T statewide cable franchise round 2

Posted on December 4, 2007 - 8:11am.

from: KnoxNews

AT&T statewide cable franchise round 2: KNS already in their pocket

Submitted by R. Neal on Mon, 2007/12/03 - 9:31am.

The AT&T statewide cable franchise bill is headed back to the Tennessee legislature. Not surprisingly, the Knoxville News Sentinel has once again taken the pro-big business, anti-consumer anti-local government position and endorsed it (see below).

( categories: AT&T | State Franchises | TENNESSEE )

The rise and fall of cable

Posted on December 4, 2007 - 8:09am.

from: Telephony Online

The rise and fall of cable
By Carol Wilson

Dec 3, 2007 5:46 PM

This year's stumble by cable stocks, which are down about 25% even after last week's FCC-inspired rally, continues to puzzle me.

The industry has done a far better job than its chief rivals, the telcos, of delivering triple-play bundles to the majority of its customers and has already made significant inroads in signing up voice customers. Yet Wall Street is apparently convinced that AT&T and Verizon pose a significant threat to cable's video franchise revenues.

( categories: Telcos | AT&T | Verizon )

CT: AT$T Got Special Favor

Posted on December 2, 2007 - 3:57pm.

from: Hartford Business

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
AT&T Got Special Favor

12/03/07

To The Editor:

I take this opportunity as the state’s Consumer Counsel to address several inaccuracies in a letter to the editor filed on Nov. 12, 2007 by AT&T’s president in response to an editorial in the Journal (“Scrambled Signals,” October 29, 2007). This is a situation in which AT&T’s cries about fairness ring false: the loser here will be the state’s video services consumers and indeed the market for those services itself. AT&T has spent millions of dollars in a campaign around the country selling legislatures and regulators on the magic that could result from freeing it from regulation, without mentioning that where this one company “wins,” consumers and its competitors must necessarily lose.

( categories: AT&T | CONNECTICUT | State Franchises )

WI: Wisconsin deserves better cable bill

Posted on November 29, 2007 - 7:46pm.

from: Beloit Daily News

Guest commentary
Posted: Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007 - 11:24:26 am CST
By Senator Judy Robson

Wisconsin deserves better cable bill

Since the dawn of broadcasting, the public interest has struggled with commercial interests for use of our public airwaves.

( categories: AT&T | State Franchises | WISCONSIN )

MI: AT$T Disappears PEG in Menu Labyrinth

Posted on November 29, 2007 - 10:12am.

from: Romeo Observer

Uniform cable agreement
changes channel on WBRW

by CHRIS GRAY
Observer Staff Writer

You'll have to exercise your thumb a bit more to get your local public access news coverage.

Letters were recently sent to residents in Bruce and Washington townships and the Village of Romeo, stating that Channel 6 will be known as Channel 902 as of Jan. 15. This is caused by the Michigan Uniform Video Service Local Franchise Agreement. Under the agreement, providers must re-submit up to 2-percent of their gross revenues to fund public access programming.

( categories: AT&T | MICHIGAN | State Franchises )

MI: Public access channel change riles officials

Posted on November 26, 2007 - 9:17pm.

from: Detroit News

Monday, November 26, 2007
Clinton Twp.
Public access channel change riles officials
They say the move would make it difficult for residents to find community programs.
Steve Pardo / The Detroit News

CLINTON TOWNSHIP -- Officials in the state's largest township are upset that Comcast plans to change the public access channel from Channel 5 to somewhere in the 900s.

( categories: AT&T | MICHIGAN | State Franchises )

WI: Cable bill proves campaign reform need urgent

Posted on November 26, 2007 - 9:15pm.

from: Madison.com

Cable bill proves campaign reform need urgent

Dave Zweifel — 11/23/2007 9:54 am

On Sunday the State Journal ran a front page story that suggested the new "cable reform" legislation might not save consumers money after all.

So what else is new?

The story confirmed what opponents of the legislation had been repeatedly saying as loudly as they could for months and months while AT&T and others filled campaign coffers in the state Legislature.

( categories: AT&T | State Franchises | WISCONSIN )

AT$T: Deregulation Only Applies To Us

Posted on November 26, 2007 - 9:08pm.

from: TechDirt

AT&T: Deregulation Only Applies To Us
from the hypocrites dept

AT&T has spent a lot of money in the last few years lobbying against government regulation. They pushed hard to dismantle the Clinton-era DSL unbundling rules. They've lobbied against having to negotiate thousands of franchise agreements with municipalities around the country before they could offer TV service. And, of course, they've lobbied hard against network neutrality regulations. In all cases, their argument was the same: market forces can protect consumers better than FCC meddling. And I've often been sympathetic to those arguments in cases where they've faced real competition. However, James Gattuso points out that for all their bluster about free markets, AT&T only favors deregulation for themselves. In a recent letter to the FCC, AT&T threw its weight behind FCC chairman Kevin Martin's proposal to impose new regulations on the cable industry under an obscure provision of the 1984 Cable Communications Policy Act. It's awfully hard to take AT&T's position here seriously. If, as they've been arguing for the last three years, the cable market is competitive enough that the franchise system should be liberalized, then it's certainly competitive enough not to need new regulations. Conversely, if new regulations of the cable industry are needed, why should AT&T be excused from complying with the rules the same rules as the cable industry? As James points out, these kinds of flip-flops completely undermine AT&T's credibility, and are likely to hurt them in the long run. If they leap at every opportunity to impose new regulations on their competitors, who's going to take them seriously when they advocate deregulation for themselves?

( categories: AT&T | FCC Video Franchise )

WI: Expert: Cable bill won't help here

Posted on November 24, 2007 - 10:17am.

from: Baraboo News Republic

Expert: Cable bill won't help here

By Tim Damos

Baraboo sports fans looking for alternatives to TV services might not get them under a cable deregulation bill expected to be signed by Gov. Jim Doyle next month.

The bill has been a point of contention for politicians, lobbyists, and angry cable subscribers who are seeing cost increases while missing their favorite sports teams' games.

( categories: AT&T | State Franchises | WISCONSIN )
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