In 2005, when hearings about the AT&T/SBC merger were taking place. Many consumer groups stated that the merger would all but guarantee higher prices for end users. Time and again, we stated that telecommunications history is rife with examples of mergers lead directly to higher prices for basic services as competition lessens. Thus, it was amazing to me that politicians bought the inane arguments of paid telecom lobbyists that this wasn't the case and allowed the AT&T/SBC merger to go through. The merger happened less than a year ago (seven month, in fact) and now AT&T has announced that it's raising basic phone rates for their customers -- fulfilling exactly what opponents of the merger warned against and showing just how misleading pro-merger representatives were. More info below:

AT&T GETS MORE FOR LESS
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: David Lazarus]

In March 2005, then-SBC's chief exec, Ed Whitacre, testified in Congress that his company's then-pending $16 billion acquisition of AT&T would have no adverse effect on consumers. He was asked by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) if he would pledge not to raise residential phone rates once the merger goes through. According to reports of the hearing, Whitacre assured the congressman that the deal would "have no impact on the consumer marketplace." Rep Markey persisted. If that's the case, he said, would Whitacre publicly pledge that rates won't go up? "I can't pledge that forever, but don't see anything that would impact that in the foreseeable future," Whitacre replied. "How long is the foreseeable future?" Rep Markey asked. "can't make a pledge for any specific length of time," Whitacre answered. "I can't give you a specific number of days or years. I really don't foresee it." Less than seven months after the SBC-AT&T merger was finalized in November, rates are now going up in the form of higher minimum usage fees. If you're an AT&T long-distance customer and you don't make a lot of calls, there's a good chance your monthly bill will be going up as a result of these new "minimum usage" fees. AT&T says on its Web site that long-distance customers "enjoy great rates usually with a small or no monthly plan fee." It says it needs to charge (or in some cases increase) monthly minimum usage fees "in order to keep these rates low and still recover our costs of providing basic service." Industry analysts and consumer advocates say this just doesn't ring true. "Carrier costs are not going up to provide long-distance service," said Lisa Pierce, a vice president at Forrester Research who specializes in telecom issues. "If anything, the cost has been coming down."

See also: AT&T/Bell South to Public: We Don't Have to Pay Attention to the Public Interest, Just the Corporate Bottom Line

NATIONAL DAY OF OUT(R)AGE

Organized by saveaccess.org with Chicago Media Action, Boston ACME, Media Alliance, FAIR, Paper Tiger, and many others . . .

Join thousands of people in cities across the country to protest AT&T, Bell South, Qwest and Verizon. These companies are spending $1 million a week to buy votes in Congress for their deregulatory legislation COPE HR.5252 and S.2686. Local cities have expressed their opposition to this legislation—now it’s time for the public to stop this phone company backed legislation—and demand accountability to local communities and the public interest.

We are protesting:

1) Telco Driven Congressional legislation that: endangers PEG access centers and channels, threatens to red-line communities, and endangers an open internet by not protecting net neutrality (HR 5252 and S.2686). Stop these legislative bills in their current form – we need more protections!

2) Telco collusion with the NSA to illegally violate the privacy of tens of millions of Americans. We demand an investigation and enforcement of the law!

3) The Telco campaign of buying off statehouse and congress people around the country to push their legislation through. We need real campaign finance reform and political transparency!

4) The Telco policy of using ‘astroturf’ groups to push their deceptions on the public. Expose these campaigns for what they are – corporate propaganda!

5) The mergers and takeovers within in the Telco industry that has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. Stop the AT&T – Bell South merger until there is accountability and thorough anti-trust reviews!

More info at: http://saveaccess.org/protest including details for Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and NYC protests.

Thanks to Peter Collins for passing this information along. AT&T, the largest telecommunications incumbent in the nation, claims that the cities of Geneva, North Aurora, Wood Dale, Carpentersville, Wheaton, and Roselle are not respecting its authority.

Here's more information:

Read more...

Two great quotes by AT&T's, Ed Whitacre, the first demonstrating the incredible greed of a corporation run amock, the second (just a few months later) demonstrating a huge backtrack after massive public outcry demanding network neutrality:

"How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?"
-- AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre 11/07/05

"Any provider that blocks access to content is inviting customers to find another provider. And that's just bad business."
-- AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre 3/21/06

Read more...

Today's Benton Headlines report on a new story by the Wall Street Journal that more and more telecom incumbents are joining the pro-muni cause:

COMPANIES THAT FOUGHT CITIES ON WI-FI NOW RUSH TO JOIN IN


[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amol Sharma amol.sharma@wsj.com]

Having tried to stop cities from offering cut-rate or free wireless Internet access to their citizens, some large phone and cable companies are now aiming to get into the market themselves. Telecom and cable giants have traditionally been critical of city-sponsored broadband initiatives, questioning their financial viability and, in some cases, even pushing for state laws to bar or restrict them. Now, in an effort to compete with similar initiatives by Google, EarthLink and others, some of the companies are changing their tune. Experts say the companies were forced into the shift in strategy. "It's inevitable that municipal wireless is going to become prevalent in cities large and small," said Craig Settles, author of the book "Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless." "That can't be ignored. I don't care how much you dislike it as a telco incumbent. You just can't get away from this wave."

From: http://online.wsj.com
(requires subscription)