Over 200 commenters have contributed to a Federal Communications Commission proceeding investigating whether public, educational and government cable channels should be on an equal footing" with basic commercial channels. In January, community media groups joined with a nationwide coalition of municipalities and regional organizations asked the FCC to launch the proceeding, charging that telecom giant AT&T discriminates against local public channels with its U-verse cable TV system. In states from California to Connecticut, wherever AT&T is providing video programming, its U-Verse system removes local PEG channels from the standard lineup, dumping dozens of channels into a generic "Channel 99" - stripping away individual channel identities and depriving those channels of basic functions viewers have come to expect.
