Save Access

from: Cup of Joe

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Connected TN Backers A Front for AT&T? (Part 2)

I have a couple of updates to add on my post from last week regarding the creation of state and national programs focusing on expanding internet access which also seems to work not only as a PR machine for AT&T but as a lobbying agency as well. A flurry of activity has been taking place and rapid changes are ahead.

from: Cup of Joe

Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Connected Tennessee Backers A Front for AT&T?

A recent examination of a program to expand internet access, which began in Kentucky and then moved into Tennessee and now goes under the name Connected Nation raises some concerns that the entire project is basically a PR machine for AT&T.

from: The Times

Losing public access TV harmed right to free speech

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 | No comments posted.

One by one, the Comcast public access TV studios in Mishawaka, Portage, Merrillville and Hammond were shut down. The significance about the Hammond studio was that live, call-in, powerful programming took place on a weekly basis.

from: Times Free Press

Telecoms compete EPB set to challenge Comcast for local customers

By: Jason Reynolds
TimesFreePress Audio

In the past, Comcast only offered cable programming and EPB just sold electricity.

Now, Comcast offers telephone and Internet service as well, and EPB is poised to offer the complete package of video, telephone and Internet service.

from: MultiChannel News

Ball State Study Sees Positive Effects From Indiana Telecom Bill
Finding Disputed by Cable Incumbents

By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 2/25/2008 1:20:00 PM

Ball State University has released a white paper stating that Indiana’s 2006 telecommunications reform bill has advanced the deployment of video and broadband services in the state, a finding disputed by cable incumbents in the state.

Note: This is an article from earlier this month, and prior to the request of the The National Association of Real Estate Brokers to have the Attorney Generals of five states investigate AT&T (according to Light Reading NAREB has since backed down).

from: Milwaukee Biz Blog

from: Bitch Slappin

Cable Choice and Competition, but only if you’re Rich

Nwitimes.com is reporting that in Indiana, after passage of one of the ubiquitous ‘Cable Choice and Competition‘ state level bills written by the phone companies, and pushed into passage by the phone companies deploying a swarm of lobbyists and handing out lots of chunky campaign contributions at the local level, the only neighborhoods that have been wired for UVerse service are affluent city and suburban neighborhoods. “More than a year ago, Indiana lawmakers supported video franchise reform legislation promoted by AT&T on the grounds that lower cable prices and widespread deployment would occur. So we exempted AT&T from the historic anti-discrimination rules that required cable operators to serve everyone in their footprint. . . . User-generated information on http://UverseUsers.com (probably the best and only public information available) conspicuously shows a dense concentration of U-Verse service in high-income areas and little coverage in low-income and rural neighborhoods. Indeed, it almost depicts a bright line separating wealthy suburbs of Indianapolis and the minority inner city areas.”

from: The Times

Is AT&T avoiding poor, minority neighborhoods?

by Charles Emory | Wednesday, February 20, 2008

With the 2008 presidential primaries well under way, we know this election season will be remembered in large part for its innovative use of the Internet. Fred Thompson and Barack Obama announced their candidacies via Web videos, and when Hillary Clinton unveiled her health care plan to cover the millions of uninsured she claims are "invisible" to the current administration, she did so via Webcast.

from: Ann Arbor News

New Service Lacks the CTN Channels

February 20, 2008
By Tom Gantert

Ann Arbor residents who choose AT&T U-verse — an Internet-based alternative to Comcast’s cable TV — won’t find Ann Arbor’s community-access channels on the service.

from: Palo Alto Online

AT&T’s TV Plans Don’t Click in California

February 13, 2008
By Becky Trout

Within months, AT&T Inc. plans to begin offering television service in Palo Alto over phone lines, introducing a new format for local programming that has the cable experts at the Midpeninsula Community Media Center and City of Palo Alto concerned.