AT&T

Federal Communications Commission reform is a topic of much discussion these days. Indeed, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has already initiated some important process reforms and we anticipate that more are coming. Clearer and more transparent processes will lead to better regulatory results. We have also been contemplating reform and will, from time to time, be posting our ideas for regulatory and structural reform at the FCC.

We start with some ideas for reforming process at the Enforcement Bureau – a Bureau that operated for many years with professionalism but whose recent practices have been marked increasingly by bad process, novel and tenuous theories of liability, and Notices of Apparent Liability (NALs) that languish after adoption. There are a number of areas where we believe the enforcement process can and should be significantly improved.

It remains unclear why the Wireless Bureau continues to question the value of giving consumers the ability to watch video without incurring any data charges. This practice, which has been embraced by AT&T and other broadband providers, has enabled millions of consumers to enjoy the latest popular content and services – for free. We hope the government continues to support a competitive marketplace that lowers costs and increases choice for consumers.

Dec 20, AT&T launches AT&T Call Protect. The free network-based service gives eligible AT&T wireless customers with HD Voice more control over unwanted calls on their smartphones. This innovative solution harnesses the power of the AT&T network to give customers automatic fraud blocking and suspected spam call warnings. You can extend this innovative network-based service and get more optional features, including temporary call blocking, by downloading the complementary AT&T Call Protect mobile companion app. Simply add the feature through your myAT&T account or the AT&T Call Protect app and get these benefits:

Automatic fraud blocking which helps reduce the chances that a customer will become the victim of a phone fraud or scam by stopping these types of calls in the network before they even reach the phone.
Suspected spam warnings on the incoming call screen which let customers choose whether or not to answer calls that originate from a suspected spam source. (Must be in HD Voice coverage area).

As we explain (again) in the response provided to the Wireless Bureau, the video entertainment marketplace is ripe for disruptive change, which is exactly why consumers have enthusiastically embraced Data Free TV in all its competitive forms. That enthusiasm has caused competitors to react with additional consumer-friendly video offerings, like the T-Mobile offer announced recently.

And although the Commission has decided to apply Title II to broadband services, the Wireless Bureau’s analysis of AT&T’s sponsored data platform abandons decades of Title II jurisprudence to raise questions about a service that undeniably increases choice and lowers costs for video consumers. This is exactly the type of pro-consumer benefit that the DirecTV acquisition was designed to achieve.

On Nov 30, AT&T begins offering 3 video streaming services – DIRECTV NOW, FreeVIEW and Fullscreen. This is rules-free TV for anyone in the US who wants to stream shows and movies anytime, anywhere. For the more than 20 million US households who have dropped cable or are flirting with cutting the cord, we’re now delivering video over a technology platform that will have multiple product capabilities. And, if you’re an AT&T Mobility customer, DIRECTV will pick up the tab for data to help you achieve all your binge-worthy goals. Data Free TV means you won’t use your AT&T mobile data for watching DIRECTV NOW or FreeVIEW in the App. Fullscreen will also cover your data for streaming in the Fullscreen App on the AT&T mobile network.

We are notifying the Federal Communications Commission that we are “opting-in” to the forbearance granted in the Commission’s 2016 Lifeline Modernization Order. By opting in to forbearance today, AT&T will not offer a Lifeline discount on our broadband products at this time except where we deploy broadband as part of a high-cost funded public interest commitment. Again, opting in to forbearance will still allow us to offer Lifeline-supported broadband in the future, should we choose to do so. We will continue to assess our options as the current Lifeline program reforms are implemented and further updates are adopted.

[The AT&T/Time Warner] transaction will reshape the competitive landscape. Put simply, AT&T and Time Warner will innovate within the system, forcing other providers to compete with innovations of their own and creating demand for wireless connectivity that will give all wireless providers greater confidence to deploy 5G networks faster, deeper, and more robustly than they otherwise would. The result is a virtuous cycle of innovation and investment that expands consumer choice, incentivizes investment in the nation’s broadband infrastructure, and allows wireless companies like AT&T to bring needed competition to consumers looking for a wireless alternative to their cable broadband.

And we can accomplish all of this without harm to competition. As we begin the merger review process, we look forward to sharing these facts with our regulators. Vertical mergers like this one have long been recognized as being fundamentally pro-competitive, and for good reason. This transaction is about giving consumers more choices, not less. It is about expanding the distribution of Time Warner’s content, not restricting it. It is about stimulating the creation of more and better content, generating demand for next generation wireless services, and delivering consumers what they want. This only happens when the right combination of assets yields the right incentives to invest, innovate, and transform. The next revolution in video awaits.

AT&T and WOW simultaneously announced 1-gig deployments Oct 11, setting up Huntsville (AL) as the latest unlikely location for a pitched battle between competing cable and telecommunication gigabit-speed services. For AT&T, Huntsville is among three more metropolitan areas that will have the switch turned on for 1-gig services in October.

Other cities now served include Detroit and Columbus (OH). WOW announced in August that it was bringing its “Gigtopia” service to five market say the end of the year. Oct 11, it said deployments have been made in four of them Huntsville and Auburn (AL).; Knoxville (TN); and Evansville (IN). "In both Auburn and Huntsville, we are already offering the highest speeds available with our 600 Mbps Internet service,” said WOW System Manager Matt DeMuro, in a statement. “By enabling 1 Gig Internet over our existing Alabama coax plant, WOW customers will be able to access the fastest Internet service from WOW.”

The week of Oct 3, I am privileged to take over leadership of AT&T’s Federal Regulatory team in AT&T’s DC office. I take the reins from my mentor, boss and friend, Bob Quinn, as he rises to succeed Jim Cicconi, who leaves us for the next chapter of his life and a richly-deserved retirement.

This opportunity comes to me at an important inflection point for our company, our industry and our country. We are on the precipice of a Presidential election that will, in all events, herald change during a time when communications companies are increasingly scrutinized through the lens of a dated regulatory code that is more and more untethered from the realities of today’s modern networks. We have moved well beyond trying to fit a square regulatory peg into a round regulatory hole to fundamental questions about whether pegs and holes are an adequate regulatory framework at all. While I don’t know what issues will dominate the regulatory stage next year, I plan to proceed in my new role consistent with the high standards established by Jim and Bob – to engage in honest and fact-based debate, to listen in good faith to opposing viewpoints and to seek consensus wherever it can be found.

Sept 12, AT&T filed comments with the Office of Management and Budget on the Federal Communications Commission’s woefully deficient analysis of the burdens associated with the so-called enhanced transparency requirements adopted in the 2015 Open Internet Order (OIO). The Commission’s analysis evinces a complete disregard for its responsibilities under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The FCC has not specifically identified the things Internet service providers (ISPs) must do to comply with the new transparency requirements; it has not separately estimated the burden of each requirement; it has not explained the benefits that would justify these requirements; and its lowball estimate of the overall costs is absurd on its face. The FCC’s PRA analysis, which took the Commission more than a year to complete, does not pass the straight-face test. We hope OMB will reject it.