Press 'Asleep At The Wheel' On Astroturf → Re: What leads to higher prices?

Salt Lake City Utah, last year I believe, it was in the news that a company signed a franchise to build out a rich neighborhood without taking care of the poorer ares they passed on the way there. Did not stay in the public eye long, just another example of government bought by the industry.

About 4 or 5 years ago, AT&T did not want to serve the poorer areas in Layton Utah. Not enough profit from those people. The city stood firm, AT&T called the city's bluff, Comcast decided that they did not need to cherry pick and won the franchise.

There, two examples.

A few weeks ago your exact same question was asked, and several people gave examples. I guess if you ask the same question enough times people will get bored responding and then you can say "See? No cheery picking proved."

Salt Lake City Utah, last year I believe, it was in the news that a company signed a franchise to build out a rich neighborhood without taking care of the poorer ares they passed on the way there. Did not stay in the public eye long, just another example of government bought by the industry.

About 4 or 5 years ago, AT&T did not want to serve the poorer areas in Layton Utah. Not enough profit from those people. The city stood firm, AT&T called the city's bluff, Comcast decided that they did not need to cherry pick and won the franchise.

If AT&T was going to "eventually" build out to the poorer areas, then there was no reason to reject the franchise, only to negotiate the terms of the buildout (and if you look at new area franchises, normally they have terms of 15% per year that would give AT&T over six years to build out to the poorer areas).
The issue is not rich or poor anyway, even though that is how it is portrayed.
The issue is high density and low density. It is actually the rich areas that are often bypassed because they refuse to pay $70/month for television, they are low density, and those who will pay $70/month are also willing to pay $2k or more for a private extension, something poorer residents cannot afford.

My condolences on such a brilliant come back, the argument that there is no cherry picking is refuted and you bring up the old "they are poor so screw them, they are just a drain" argument. Not everyone in 'poor' areas (we are not talking GHETTO poor now) is without money and on welfare, there are many who have enough for something like internet and entertainment cable, they just do not go out and pay for the extras that boost bonuses for the industry bosses. These folks do not have as many cars, boats, skidoos, mobile homes, etc. as the places that AT&T wanted to serve.

As far was winning, Comcast took over the service because AT&T could not or would not deliver. AT&T left because they did not WANT to reduce the percentage of profit even if it meant more money. Despite your stuttering, that sounds like winning to me and Comcast now has to live up to what they said they would do, so what is wrong with that? Or does your company have a history of making promises and commitments and then downstream say "Oh, we have the money now, so we changed our minds on that." and you think that is normal?

And from what some people said (I do not know, I do not waste my money on cable), AT&T losing was the best thing to happen here. I happen to think AT&T is crooked, but that is another story and a different credit card.

If you are referring to the South Jordan project (Daybreak?), that is a new community which signed on to Qwest's FTTH platform. This is a 'greenfield' build, all new infrastructure. En route to there is Qwest copper serving DSL, so I wouldn't consider this 'cherrypicking'.

As for Layton and cable, AT&T Broadband (formerly TCI there, I believe) was totally fubar in all of northern Utah, and may be considered somewhat of an anomaly. Even so, the cherrypicking didn't happen, for whatever reason.

As for this topic being discussed 'a few weeks ago', I sure missed it, and I am here pretty often. It may have been discussed in a cable forum, in which case I would not have seen it, as I only tend to monitor/contribute to the Qwest forum and News articles, so I'm sorry I missed it.