Posted by: Bob Quinn on November 7, 2012 at 12:03 pm
This morning, we announced a very significant capital commitment to our broadband infrastructure. The net-net is that we are committing $14 Billion in capital to bring Internet broadband infrastructure – wireline and wireless – to more places over the next three years. As part of that commitment, we plan to expand our 4G LTE network by an additional 50 million consumers (based on population covered). And we plan to provide an additional 8.5 million customer locations with our award winning U-verse product that will directly compete with the cable incumbent’s voice, video and broadband offerings. As a result of these investments, millions of customer locations that have at best access only to legacy DSL services will have access to either U-verse or IP DSLAM technology.
In addition to that expansion, we are also committing capital to build 21st century fiber infrastructure to 50 percent of the Multi-Tenant buildings in our wireline service area, which will be capable of serving more than one million additional business customer locations.
We plan to invest on average about $22 billion in capital per year over the next three years. To build that additional infrastructure means that we will be buying 21st century broadband equipment, including laying new fiber and providing faster Internet services to a significant part of our service area. AT&T’s announcement is exactly the kind of infrastructure investment story that policymakers have been urging to create jobs in the United States. AT&T is stepping up to meet that challenge.
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on November 8, 2011 at 5:06 pm
The first ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System is set for Wednesday, November 9, at 2:00pm EST. The test is being conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). You may attribute the following statement to AT&T’s Vice-President-Federal Regulatory Hank Hultquist:
“As a provider of video services, we will participate in the national Emergency Alert System (EAS) test tomorrow, and we look forward to receiving the alert on our U-verse TV network. In the last week, the authorities shortened the planned duration of the test from three minutes to 30 seconds. If the test only lasts 30 seconds, alert messages will not be transmitted to U-verse customers and their receivers may not be automatically tuned to a local news station. However, in the event of an actual emergency alert, our customers’ receivers would automatically tune to a local news station and all customers would receive the emergency alert message.
“In an effort to keep our customers informed, we today notified our U-verse TV customers via an on screen message that a) the National Emergency Alert System is being tested tomorrow at 2pm EST, b) the test has been shortened by the authorities from three minutes to 30 seconds to reduce overall disruptions, and c) because of the shortened duration of the test, the test may not appear on their TV screens.”
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Posted by: Hank Hultquist on October 21, 2011 at 4:00 pm
It’s time to chalk up another victim to the addictive qualities of access charges.
For more than a decade, cable companies have fought vigorously to avoid entanglement of their broadband IP networks with common carrier regulation. Now, for less than a penny a minute, Comcast seems ready to say “the heck with all that.”
In recent weeks, Comcast has proposed certain changes to the FCC’s rules that govern competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) access charges. In particular, Comcast has asked the FCC to eliminate a rule that prohibits CLECs from charging for functions that they don’t actually perform. No, that’s not a typo. Comcast wants the FCC to allow CLECs (and this includes Comcast’s own CLEC affiliates) to charge for access services whether they provide them or not. This request is surpassingly ironic in that VoIP providers have spent much of the last 10 years insisting that they should never have to pay access charges. Today, we filed a letter with the Commission explaining why Comcast’s proposal is not only unlawful but also unwise.
In a nutshell, Comcast wants the FCC to make a rule saying that as long as a CLEC provides the telephone number listed in the number portability database, that CLEC should be able to charge the same amount as an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) that terminates a call to an end user over its plain old telephone service (POTS) network. The implication of this proposal is that as long as a CLEC provides the telephone number, it’s safe to conclude that the CLEC provides a service equivalent to all of the other functions – and the associated costs – included in access charges. Nothing could be further from the truth. And, here’s why.
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