Telco Takeover Raises Threat to Cable

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John M. Higgins & John Eggerton]
BellSouth’s passive stance toward entry into the video business will probably change if the telephone company is acquired by AT&T. As AT&T and Verizon have set bold plans to take on cable companies in both the video and the voice business, BellSouth has sat largely on the sidelines. The company has been upgrading its telephone systems with fiber optics, mostly to increase the capacity of high-speed Internet services. But the Baby Bell has been far less aggressive and far more frugal than AT&T/SBC’s Project Lightspeed. That means systems in BellSouth’s southern-state service area haven't had to focus on defending against an attack in video, worrying instead about high-speed data and stealing the telco’s voice customers. That will likely change.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6313217?display=Breaking+News...
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McSlarrow: Only Cable Can …
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Only the cable industry stands between competition and the reconstruction of the AT&T Inc. phone monopoly, National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow said in a letter to congressional communications-policy leaders Monday, one day after AT&T said it would purchase BellSouth Corp. in a massive transaction expected to clear regulatory hurdles largely unscathed. Although the context of the letter was AT&T’s and Verizon Communications Inc.’s campaign to eliminate local video franchising, McSlarrow used the $67 billion merger announcement to warn Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX) and John Dingell (D-MI) that AT&T is “on the verge of re-creating Ma Bell,” having “wiped out their telephone competition” and “swallowed their long-distance competition. And,” McSlarrow added, “only one competitor really stands in their way: the cable industry.”
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6313528.html?display=Breaking+News
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