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Note: Attorney General Richard Blumenthal took AT&T to court when they refused to seek franchising in the state. He's likely to ride the company hard until they replace every battery in Connecticut.

from: WFSB News 3

Exploded AT&T Batteries Raise Concerns
Company Says It's Removing Batteries From Streets

from: Hartford Business

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
AT&T Got Special Favor

12/03/07

To The Editor:

I take this opportunity as the state’s Consumer Counsel to address several inaccuracies in a letter to the editor filed on Nov. 12, 2007 by AT&T’s president in response to an editorial in the Journal (“Scrambled Signals,” October 29, 2007). This is a situation in which AT&T’s cries about fairness ring false: the loser here will be the state’s video services consumers and indeed the market for those services itself. AT&T has spent millions of dollars in a campaign around the country selling legislatures and regulators on the magic that could result from freeing it from regulation, without mentioning that where this one company “wins,” consumers and its competitors must necessarily lose.

from: Fierce IPTV

U-verse given the green light in Connecticut
November 6, 2007

AT&T has been granted a franchise for its IPTV U-verse service in Connecticut after a state court overturned a decision by the local utility regulator which required U-verse to have to get a franchise in each area in which it wanted to operate. The decision is an important precedent and clears the way for similar state-level clearance to facilitate the rapid roll out of the broadband infrastructure necessary to support IPTV and other high access services. AT&T becomes the first competitor to offer television services under a new state law designed to increase competition with the cable industry.

from: 7 Town TV

IPTV and Consumer Choice

It is the same story but CT is now the playing field Telecom

Throughout the entire time-line of public discourse about U-verse, which includes both regulatory & court proceedings, at&t has funded a marketing campaign that presents itself as a consumer choice organization (MoreConsumerChoice.org and wewantchoice.com). at&t is currently running the TV4US campaign with pro at&t letter being auto-generation to DPUC. This campaign strategically locates TV4US ADs near articles on the U-verse debate. (Such Ads have appeared in web version of NH Register, Record-Journal, Hartford Courant.) This is polluting the information integrity associated with this market competition issue.

from: Associated Content

AT&T U-verse Deploys in Connecticut Stirs Controversy
Can Someone Buy Your Free Speech?
By adelehouston

The free speech of hundreds of consumers was paid for in advertising funds expended by AT&T this year. In a recent campaign to deploy U-verse in Connecticut (a timeline of events can be found here; http://7towntv.org/ct_acm.htm ) a massive marketing campaign rallied consumers to fight for competition and fair prices. It was slick.

from: Courant.com

AT & T Wins In Court; TV Service To Continue

By MARK PETERS

Courant Staff Writer

November 1, 2007

A Hartford Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that AT&T can resume signing up customers for its TV service, possibly ending the battle over how to regulate the company's alternative to cable television.

from: Hartford Business

EDITORIAL
Scrambled Signals

10/29/07

It’s always enlightening to see who owns what. Jay Leno owns several dozen fancy cars. Rupert Murdoch is about to own the Wall Street Journal. And AT&T, it seems, owns Connecticut’s top elected officials.

AT&T wants to make a bundle of money on a service that delivers television via the Internet, all over AT&T’s existing copper phone lines. The service is called U-verse. It’s supposed to be a competitive product to existing cable television.

from: Republican American

U-verse TV battle moves to state court

BY DAVID KRECHEVSKY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

HARTFORD — The fate of AT&T's U-verse television service now rests with a state superior court judge.

Judge Robert F. McWeeny conducted a hearing Friday before a packed house in Hartford Superior Court on a request from AT&T Inc. to overturn a ruling by state regulators that requires the company to seek a cable TV franchise license for U-verse.

from: Hartford Courant

Connecticut Attorney General Shifts Stance on AT&T TV Service

October 24, 2007
By Mark Peters

After winning a months-long battle that ended with a prohibition against AT&T’s signing up new customers for its TV service, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday said the phone giant should be allowed to resume marketing the service.

from: Norwalk Advocate

AT&T says no U-verse if license is necessary
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer

October 25, 2007

HARTFORD - If AT&T must apply for a cable franchise for its fiber-optic U-verse, it would stop offering the television service in Connecticut, a company vice president said yesterday.