  RobIn Deo speramus, God Bless the USAPremium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
kudos:2 | What a joke... The new AT&T may not be the old AT&T but their name isn't the only thing they kept.. they also inherited their "everyone is stupid, we're smart" attitude. | |
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 |  onDvineDon't litter. Spay-neuter.Premium
join:2005-01-29
So. CA, USA
kudos:7 | Re: What a joke... said by Rob:The new AT&T may not be the old AT&T but their name isn't the only thing they kept. ... The new at&t is just SBC after buying the old AT&T and the right to use the name.
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A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. ▪Erin Majors | |
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| | RobIn Deo speramus, God Bless the USAPremium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
kudos:2 | Re: What a joke... said by onDvine:said by Rob:The new AT&T may not be the old AT&T but their name isn't the only thing they kept. ... The new at&t is just SBC after buying the old AT&T and the right to use the name. I know.. and the right to use their name isn't the only thing they kept..
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YourIP.US - It's Your IP .. and more!
rr.cx - Personal Site.. coming soon. | |
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| | |  calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA | Re: What a joke... Realistically, the stupidity and monopoly mentality come more from SBC than from ATT, which was in competitive markets for a couple of decades....
calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! | |
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| ub355
join:2005-09-15
Brookfield, WI |
AT&T challenges cable TV, satellite
Internet-based U-verse won't pay communities franchise fees
By DORIS HAJEWSKI
dhajewski@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 28, 2007
AT&T is launching its Internet-based television service to compete with cable and satellite offerings in the five-county metropolitan Milwaukee area, and it is choosing not to pay municipalities for franchising rights or giving them any oversight, as cable companies do.
Milwaukee is among the first communities nationwide that will have the U-verse service.
AT&T will not disclose the number of households in the area that it will serve with the initial launch. It also will not disclose specific locations, for competitive reasons, spokeswoman Sarah Silva said.
The basic TV service will start at $44 a month and will compete with Time Warner Cable's TV service. Cable companies are required to have a franchise agreement in each municipality where they operate and to pay a franchise fee to the municipality.
"We believe (Internet protocol) television is not a cable service as defined by" law, said Mark Lipford, AT&T vice president and general manager for Wisconsin. The television signal is delivered through phone lines.
Some U-verse TV packages offer more than 300 channels, including digital music, local channels and premium movie and sports programming. The service also allows Internet remote access to a digital video recorder, which allows customers with high-speed Internet service to schedule recordings using their AT&T Yahoo! account.
In December, Milwaukee filed a federal lawsuit against AT&T that seeks to force the company to negotiate a franchise agreement for the U-verse service. Since then, many suburbs have joined the suit.
Nevertheless, the two sides have been negotiating an interim agreement that would cover many of the same issues, such as a fee to the city.
Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley said those talks have been "very productive" over the past weeks and suggested it will soon be clear whether a deal could be reached. Lipford said AT&T's negotiations with the city would allow the company to provide service, but that the matter would not be a franchise agreement.
"We're negotiating on terms and conditions of being able to launch the service," Lipford said.
Any such deal would have to be approved by Mayor Tom Barrett and the Common Council. It could also become a model for nearby communities, as well as the state. The Legislature has put off efforts to create regulations in this area, waiting to see what happens in Milwaukee.
Meanwhile, AT&T is going ahead with the launch. Langley said he was not alarmed by AT&T's announcement it would begin marketing the service.
"We knew at some point they would be marketing and selling their service to their customers," he said.
Public rights of way
The Regional Telecommunications Commission, which represents more than 30 municipalities in southeast Wisconsin in issues such as cable television and video-on-demand services, believes AT&T doesn't have the legal right to install equipment cabinets for U-verse in public rights of way without franchise contracts with the municipalities.
Bob Chernow, the commission's chairman, said, "They are violating the law, in our opinion."
In Brookfield, City Attorney Karen Flaherty said the city has not been notified of any start of service.
More than a year ago, the city approved the installation of an equipment box in the public right of way that was needed for the service. Flaherty said she is aware of about six boxes on privately owned land that the city did not have to approve.
In Racine, City Attorney Rob Weber said the city was aware AT&T would be offering its service. Along with other municipalities in the dispute, Racine is concerned that the services be provided in a non-discriminatory manner and be part of its cable franchise agreement, Weber said.
"AT&T has been very willing to negotiate where their boxes would be placed in terms of the right of way, but not where the coverage would be," Weber said.
Targeted sales pitch
Because the service won't be available across the area, a marketing campaign for the launch will be targeted at households that are eligible. Those homes will get direct mail solicitations and visits from door-to-door salespeople who will be able to demonstrate the service.
AT&T will have mobile demonstration trucks in neighborhoods where service is available, and it also will invite eligible households to demonstrations at the Ridge Cinemas complex in New Berlin. People who attend the theater demonstrations will be able to see a movie, with popcorn, free.
AT&T also will demonstrate U-verse at Cingular wireless retail stores in Oconomowoc and Brookfield.
AT&T is launching the service as it relies less on phone service for sales. Nationwide, the company lost 227,000 residential phone customers in the latest quarter. AT&T expects its TV service to reach 19 million homes by the end of 2008.
AT&T now has nearly 7,000 U-verse customers across the United States, up from 3,000 at the end of 2006. Service began in mid-2006 in the company's hometown of San Antonio.
Now, services are available in portions of 13 markets across five states. Last year, 2.2 million households were eligible to get the service, and the company aims to make U-verse available to 8 million households by the end of this year, Silva said.
'Real competitor'
Bev Greenberg, a spokeswoman for Time Warner's southeast Wisconsin operation, called AT&T "a real competitor" but said the company is used to competition.
"If fact, the satellite folks have about 31 percent of our state's penetration, so we have been competing, and we have great confidence in our products and our services," Greenberg said.
She questioned how quickly and widely AT&T's U-verse service will be available. She said the launch of U-verse in San Antonio turned out to be slow.
"The rollout was much slower than perceived," she said.
Time Warner has 577,000 cable television customers, 331,000 high-speed Internet customers and 130,000 digital telephone customers in Wisconsin, she said. All the phone customers have been added in the last 18 months, since the service was introduced here, she said.
Greg Borowski, Jennie Tunkieicz, David Sheeley, Lisa Sink and Paul Gores of the Journal Sentinel staff, as well as Bloomberg News and The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
Buy a link here | |
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 intellerSociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK | somehimes I wish I had this big hand that I could reach into ATT and pluck out all the stupidity. This company could be good if you shaved off the top 3 tiers of management. | |
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 pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD |  Is This Really a Change?
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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| | | Re: Is This Really a Change? is that 0.00 dollars, or o.oo cents | |
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| | | | Re: Is This Really a Change? That's 0.00 SENSE | |
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| | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | said by RIRWIN1983:is that 0.00 dollars, or o.oo cents How do you pay a account of $0.001? | |
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| | | Depends on what the definition of, of is.  | |
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| | kcir
join:2005-07-30
Butner, NC | Re: Is This Really a Change? On paper aren't they both the same!  | |
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 gpidockPremium
join:2006-12-01
Columbus, OH | AT&T forgive them...for they know not what they do | |
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| RobIn Deo speramus, God Bless the USAPremium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
kudos:2 | Re: AT&T said by gpidock:forgive them...for they know not what they do so true..
but I think consumers are tired of the incompetence that rings through these corporations over the past decades. Nothing but negative issues have been generated by them. From corruption, to fraud, to just pure stupidity.
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YourIP.US - It's Your IP .. and more!
rr.cx - Personal Site.. coming soon. | |
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| | Double The Orders Every Day For Three Weeks
Everyone remember that quote? FTA the real truth:
"Hodulik says AT&T is currently adding about 100 U-verse customers a day. In March, he expects that figure to ramp up to about 300 a day."
I think we can see what the new turd bird is.
There is FTTP at my new house but it's no faster then Time Warners internet service. TW will also be $35/mo cheaper for a triple play so alas I will be saying good bye to AT&T in 3 weeks. | |
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|  TopmounterSent By Grocery Clerks
join:2001-02-20
Evergreen, CO | Re: Double The Orders Every Day For Three Weeks OMG OMG BUTT FIBREZ HAVES UNLIMITED BANDWIDTHZZZ!!!1!!1
Sorry, I couldn't resist | |
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| rayePremium
join:2000-08-14
Orange, CA | 300 customers/day x 300 days = 90,000
So roughly 100,000 customers served by the end of the year. There appear to be a few zeros off from their 10K and press releases... | |
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 wesmPremium
join:1999-07-29
Redmond, WA | O RLY? The article: It will launch next week in Dallas-Fort Worth...
No kidding? I haven't heard anything about it here, and I'm smack in the middle of an at&t area. They haven't even been doing any digging...
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Opinions expressed here are mine and not my employer's. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | |
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| | | Re: O RLY? They only launch in `parts of` MSA's. If there is 300 houses that they pass somewhere they will say they launched in DFW. | |
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|  extreme50Formerly TwoKDialupPremium
join:2002-06-07
Coloma, MI | Maybe they are parking promotional vehicles in new neighborhoods like Verizon did with their FiOS/Hummers.
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Meet Bill and Karolyn at www.theslowskys.com | |
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| | | I'm in St. Louis and I've seen quite a bit of activity with regards to laying fiber and upgrading boxes. It looks like this is right on the verge of 'going live' -- but, I suppose, we shall see. | |
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|  apeface
join:2000-09-16
Mckinney, TX
kudos:3 | There are fttn boxes all over the colony and frisco and there are test customers up and running now. | |
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jtel
join:2005-06-28
Bristol, RI | U-Verse is Falling Down & Can't Get Up Microsoft must have straightened them out also as they aren't blaming them anymore and the economics have changed as its costs will remain the same to rollout less than half of the homes targeted originally.
"Cook says Microsoft's IPTV software isn't to blame: "We're building a brand new service from scratch, and we want to make sure we do it right the first time." | |
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| | hmm I have a weird feeling they will scrap the entire idea and walk away. | |
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| kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL | Re: hmm Yeah, same here..... it's wishful thinking, but cutting back VDSL deployments make sense if they are seriously reconsidering FTTH.
I was really hoping for more (especially in my area), if only to give comcast a competitive shove. | |
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 ftthzIf love can kill hate can also save
join:2005-10-17 | project slow speed geez its not even ftth ... what's the hold up | |
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| RobIn Deo speramus, God Bless the USAPremium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
kudos:2 | Re: project slow speed said by ftthz:geez its not even ftth ... what's the hold up They got their approval for the merger of BellSouth,now they don't have to please anyone.
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YourIP.US - It's Your IP .. and more!
rr.cx - Personal Site.. coming soon. | |
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| | | said by ftthz:geez its not even ftth ... what's the hold up quote:
AT&T told the San Antonio Express News they were "taking off the brakes" on U-Verse IPTV & VDSL deployment
That issue is one thing.
However taking it out of park and putting it into drive, is a whole different ball of wax all together.
Someone has to pay the insurance premium, before the truck gets moving down teh internet tubes.
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Its the Democrats fault. In fact it is the Speaker of House Polosi fault. Everything is the Democrats fault. Everything. Just like Everything was the Republicans Fault when they were in power. | |
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Squidii
join:2004-06-30
Little Rock, AR | coma I just woke up from a 7 year coma. Did you say project pronto has been been canceled?
I'm going back to sleep.
Squid | |
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| | what does the boxes look like i was on my way to the store when i noticed AT&T working in the front of my aparment now there a big beige box in the front of my building. I was wondering what the u-verse box looks like because i think it is one..if so its "bye-bye" CONCRAP | |
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| | Make it all wireless Way back TV was wireless and the Telephones had a wire. These days the trend is for the Telephone to be wireless and TV to have a wire. One day everything will be wireless. | |
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| | I said it before and I'll say it again. Do not believe anything that comes out of the Deathstar!!! Why are Skype, Voip and all the other alternate forms of communications so popular???
Because they weren't invented/created by the telcos!!!
Just a thought, | |
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 scoobyPremium
join:2001-05-01
Schaumburg, IL
kudos:1 | Wake me up when they ditch the VDSL VDSL is too slow for HD hungry consumers. There are many nights where my wife and I are recording 3-5 shows in HD at one time. I don't see that happening anytime soon on U-Verse.
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SunRocket - You get what you pay for! | |
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 spgGrrrr
join:2001-10-31
NOT Texas! | Not stopped, slowed. Well if you can't get the permits for the structures it slows you down a bit.
Take LA; The city owns the power too. So besides getting the necessary permits and complying (or deciding to challenge them) they have to get the power also. And if the city that owns the power co. wants to slow things down, you can only imagine what some of the power requirements might be...
It's still moving forward, people are getting hired, fiber backbones are still getting placed, etc. | |
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