🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <j.grout-2601990110570001@205-219-66-47.bayarea.net>, 
j.grout@computer.org writes...

> My local TCI rep told me that the company
> indefinitely postponed deployment in Sunnyvale and had scheduled a
> new pilot in Fremont because its new owner, AT&T, wasn't interested
> in upgrading older cable systems to provide cable modem service
> _UNLESS_ new pilots suggested they could forcibly bundle cable,
> data, local and long distance telephone service.  In plain English,
> AT&T sees the traditional "expanded basic" cable tier ripoff as
> an entry point for a cable, voice and data ripoff.  No wonder they
> paid so much for TCI.


This is interesting information about ATT, as they haven't really
made specific announcements about their intended service 
arrangements as far as I know.

What is strange about this little gossip however is that AFAIK, 
the TCI acquisition hasn't been fully approved and/or finalized
yet.  So for a TCI rep to be claiming these things are being 
dictated by their new owner sounds to me to be speculative at
the least.

As for ATT engaging in "cable, voice and data ripoff", that
remains to be seen.  Personally I'm sick and tired of the 
baby bells whining and bitching and dragging their feet about
providing any sort of environment conducive to *real* 
competitition in the local loop -- and if ATT is going to
be the first company to come along and shake up the local
telephone market, so be it.  The baby bells (soon to 
become "mega bells" again) are looking to me far worse
these days than ATT.

(Epilogue: the Supreme Court just had the final word on
the lawsuits brought by the baby bells against the provisions
for local competition laid out in the 1996 telecom act,
and the baby bells lost.  Hopefully now there's going
to be some real competition developing for the last mile,
and if ATT's going to be the one to deliver that, it's
fine by me.)



Phil


-- 
Philip J. Koenig         The Electric Kahuna Organization          [see below]
-----------------Computers & Communications for the New Millenium-------------
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