XBL2009
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join:2001-01-03
Chicago, IL | Monoplies suck
Big slow don't give a crap, give me the money monoplies suck. AT$T laughs at the $750 fine as a joke. Maybe they would listen if eveybody in town just called up to cancel there service. |
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trmentry
Don't Run. You Will Just Die Tired.
join:2000-04-24
Phoenix, AZ
clubs:
| ATT Woes
I for one have ATT Digital Cable. I get letters in the mail saying my service will start to cost less but on that months bill it goes up. This has happened 3 times that I can think of since I got the service.
I keep being told that cable modem service is coming. I've been told that it will be in, in the next 2 years. I was told that 4 years ago, still no cable modem service in my area. At least I was able to get DSL.
I personally would go for DirectTV or some other provider like that, and I don't care if my NBC, etc are local or not but my condo doesn't have the LOS to the sky necessary. |
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Rob Froelich
join:2000-03-26
Saint Charles, IL
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| Geneva, St. Charles, and Batavia are doing the right thing, something that will get AT&T attention when it happens. They are doing a feasibility study of taking over the cable franchise and using a fiber network built by the three to deliver phone, cable TV and Internet. I'm glad to be a resident of Geneva and am praying this thing gets off the ground soon. We can't get cable modems in Geneva, and the digital cable bites - its down for at least 1-2 days every month. I have yet to see any credits for the downtime I've experience from ATT.
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Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!! |
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NtwkGUY1
join:2001-02-08
Lewisville, TX
| Hey Rob, this seems to be about the TV portion. I have yet to see a Municipality agreement that requires the Cable TV company to provide broadband service. For one, I would not like for my City to be running the Cable or fiber system. Cities should stick to running the city. Leave the telecommunications to private industry... |
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richb01803
Rich
join:2001-02-14
02100
| said by NtwkGUY:
Cities should stick to running the city. Leave the telecommunications to private industry...
You're omitting another option: the city can grant a license to a newly-created private entity, comprised of advocates and local entrepreneurs, which runs the telecoms.
And deny AT&T Broadband and its ilk licenses unless it conforms to the same constraints placed on the new entity.
Personally, I think that either these entities should be regulated to the hilt if they are given exclusive license, or else they should not be given exclusive licenses and the city should enforce creation of competitive service offerings among at least 3 rivals.
Also lacking is leadership at the federal level: the FCC can and should create template regulations, to be enforced at the local level, which help create a level playing field for competition. For now, the FCC is completely asleep on these issues, claiming a lack of jurisdiction. |
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NtwkGUY1
join:2001-02-08
Lewisville, TX
| Regulation is one thing. But these cities do not have the talent, have the buying power of a large company, nor the resources. As for the rival thing, there are a few places in the US that have more than one cable company serving the same households. It works for the most part. |
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Rob Froelich
join:2000-03-26
Saint Charles, IL
clubs:
·Comcast
| Hey Jim,
I have to disagree with you. Geneva already provides my power and water and pay about half what everyone around me pays, and have yet to have a single problem with service. I don't buy the argument that a municipality couldn't attract and retain the services of qualified people to build and manage their network. They have already done so very successfully on the electric utility side, and provide a number of other city services effectively. So far the private sector has failed to provide anything resembling good cable service or Internet Broadband (75% of the Geneva, St. Charles and Batavia population cannot get DSL, 100% cannot get cable modems today). Broadband is so critical to the growth of the local economy, that when the private sector fails as they have in this case the public sector SHOULD step up and do what it can. The argument that its to hard for a municipal government to do is hogwash when you consider the fact that there are many towns like these that are on very solid ground financially and have made great strides in providing essential physical infrastructure to their constituents. Don't get me started on the how de-regulation has failed us in so many other markets - look at the California power crisis that could never have happened without the largely unregulated privatization of that industry.
Rob
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Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!! |
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Firetruck12
join:2000-01-06
Wood Dale, IL
clubs: | What's that?!
You mean you can get the in-tur-nat on the cable? |
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2cents
@attbi.com
| Comes down to tough decisions
AT&T has had to prioritize which systems it is going to upgrade first. Where is the highest demand for new services like digital cable, high speed data and cable telephone service? Where is the highest return on system upgrade investment the most likely.
AT&T can't do it all at once. The costs are just too high.
Maybe AT&T is guilty of biting off more than it could chew when it went on cable buying binges. However, can all see that people want these services...the demand is there! |
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radougherty
join:1999-07-23
Austin, TX
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by 2cents:
AT&T can't do it all at once. The costs are just too high.
Gee, AT&T seem to be able to find the money to go out and buy how many different cable companies? But now when it's time to upgrade the systems there's no money to be found anywhere. It will probably get worst if the AT&T/Comcast merger goes through since now there's even more debt that must be paid off and even less money for upgrades, except when it comes to a golden parachute for some exec that isn't needed after the merger. |
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richb01803
Rich
join:2001-02-14
02100
| reply to NtwkGUY1
Re: ATT Woes
Rob raises a good point.
Most cities operate their own waterworks; not quite such a high percentage run their own trash pickup but I'm pretty sure it's well over 50%.
In greater Boston, a few communities have tried privatizing, with very much mixed results.
It would not surprise me at all if telecom as an industry fails just like passenger railroads. The question, in that event, would be whether we want the Feds to pick up the pieces, or our local communities.
I'd go with the local waterworks model, if it comes to that. |
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Rob Froelich
join:2000-03-26
Saint Charles, IL
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to trmentry
Think about where this country would be without near ubiquity in its water and electricity utilities. I'd like to see someone try to tell me that was accomplished due to market forces.
Is broadband Internet access any less critical to our nations economy?
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Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!! |
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TACSPEED
Premium
join:2001-04-14
Tacoma, WA
·Advanced Stream
| reply to NtwkGUY1
Municipal cable companies are great!
If you wait for private industry, you could be dead before you get it.
In Tacoma, TCI wasn't interested in upgrading their cable system until the city decided to build a cable system. We now get cable modem service for less then 30 bucks a month, one of the lowest prices in the nation. Heck, we can even get fiber to the home if we want. Try and get fiber to your home from ATT.
Municipal cable companies are great!!!!! |
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Amr
Pointing out the obvious
Premium
join:2001-12-03
Wichita, KS
clubs:
|  finally
finally!! someone is doing something about the whole att thing i live in carol stream and for about 3 years i have been contacting att and ameritech about dsl or cable and still nothing so im happy that finally after all this time they are finally doing something about it and not sitting around and finally ill be able to get some high speed internet access |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
 ·AT&T Midwest
| reply to 2cents
Re: Comes down to tough decisions
Ha. It would be nice if they just made a decision. Any decision. They haven't put a dime in the systems around here since they bought them except to add digital cable that sometimes works and delete analog channels (without lowering the monthly bill). We barely have cable TV and of course they blame the prior system operator (Centel originally, then Jones, then TCI) whom they bought the rats nest from. I guess "due diligence" isn't in their vocabulary.
We suffer through weekly outages, bad reception, cross-modulation interference due to improperly operated equipment, wildly varying channel signal levels, audio levels all over the place (I measured two adjacent channels at 16 db difference), EAS rule noncompliance, miserably out-of-spec signal-to-noise. The list goes on and on.
If they can't afford to fix it, then the decision should be to get off the pot and quit lying about their plans and abilities. Cable modem service is the least of their problems in the Chicago market. |
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kmulkey
join:2001-12-01
Schaumburg, IL
| reply to XBL2009
Connection woes
Hey folks, a little help here, please. I lost my ATTBI connectivity Thursday. I'm running XP home version and when I right click on the NIC icon in the systray, and then choose repair, I can connect. That allows me to surf or pull e-mail for about 30 seconds up to maybe a minute. Then I have to click on repair again. Any ideas? ATTBI says it's a bad modem but I bought a new one today and the same problem exists. HELP! |
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