AT&T Loves Competition (Or At Least Their Version Of It)

from the do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do dept

Tue, Apr 18th 2006 11:54am — Carlo Longino

AT&T has paid a UC-Berkeley professor to write a paper which says that cable-TV prices would drop if more competition were introduced to the California market -- competition from, say, a telco like AT&T. It's kind of amusing to watch AT&T act like a bastion of competition and a great friend of the consumer in the TV space, while on the telephone and broadband side, they do their best to resist competition and abuse their monopoly (or duopoly) power. If AT&T is so concerned about competition and consumer prices, why not lease out capacity wholesale on their networks and let third-party providers offer consumers services? They're happy to do that in the more competitive wireless market. AT&T and Verizon are lobbying to get state cable franchising laws changed to make it easier for them to get into the market. Perhaps if their plans supported competition in a meaningful way, rather than just extending the duopoly to cable TV, they'd have an easier time -- not that they really have a problem getting what they want from government.

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7 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2006 @ 12:19pm

Corporations are going to do whats in their best interest. Why is this news?
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Sick, 18 Apr 2006 @ 1:01pm

What is ever news? Another election, new season of American Idol, the /weather/, somebody or some people were killed in this way or that? That's what gets reported on the "news" nowadays.
But Techdirt is an editorial site, and nothing that happens has never happened before.
The point of this article is that while nobody can blame a company or for acting in its best interest, there are certain things that would be in a comapny's best interest that almost all companies always fail to see, such as fostering true competition and innovation. Instead they'd rather do what amounts to screwing the customers, and the government is only too happy to help.
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Lance, 18 Apr 2006 @ 1:53pm

ATT
Or flipping out and doing everything possible to prevent cities from doing Urban wide WiFi. Unless of course they can legislate a cut.
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Yale Braunstein, 19 Apr 2006 @ 1:56pm

At least get the facts straight...
Your first sentence states "AT&T has paid a UC-Berkeley professor to write a paper which says that cable-TV prices would drop if more competition were introduced to the California market -- competition from, say, a telco like AT&T." Nice lead, but incorrect. I am that professor, I was paid by AT&T to do the research, BUT it was the FCC and the GAO that documented the price reductions from competition. I then calculated how much (in dollars) cable subscribers in California would save if they could see similar price reductions. Links to the report and the calculations are at:
www.sims.berkeley.edu/~bigyale/cable/
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hmarvelous, 24 Apr 2006 @ 11:02pm

Ha ha ha
Where's your response to that Carlo?

You didn't expect the professor to be reading your crappy little blog did you?
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Mike (profile), 24 Apr 2006 @ 11:33pm

Re: Ha ha ha
Hmm. What's so funny about it? If you read the prof's comments, Carlo's exactly right. They DID pay him, didn't they?

Carlo and I discussed this, and we didn't think a response was necessary, as he basically admits to exactly what Carlo wrote.

Anyway, if you really believe we're a crappy little blog, why should you care? And... I won't even bother to reveal where your IP address says you're coming from... but it's fairly revealing about why you would say such a thing....
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lisap, 9 Dec 2008 @ 10:34pm

Innovation is part of producing new product design. The technology is improving. Therefore, inventing and producing new output is part of the organizational marketing plan. The latest contributors to the national layoff numbers has been Adobe who has cut 600 jobs, AT&T which is cutting 12,000 jobs, Viacom who laid off 850 and NBCU which is letting 500 people go. These are scary measures, for scary times and unfortunately a necessary evil for companies to stay afloat in today's upside-down economy. Consumers, who are paying the most, have been feeling the effects of our economy's fallout since the Federal Reserve stepped in and bailed out many of the nation's banks via American consumer Taxpayer dollars. This was the first big hit the American Taxpayers had to take. Now, that the banks have been extended a hand of Federal mercy, they now begin to clamp down on personal and business financing which has only made it harder for both everyday consumers and business owners who, if not allowed to spend, or operate cannot stimulate the economy. Banks have tightened their belts to cut back on the mortgage defaults which were and still continues to be one of their greatest problems to overcome. Unfortunately for the consumer, the banking industries consistent endeavors to raise banking fees tax the American economy even more. Overdraft fees, minimum balance fees, ATM fees and other miscellaneous fees are among those that have been increased. It has been perceived that the banks are raising their rates to compensate for their losses in revenue due to mortgage defaults. If there is anything good that has come out of the economy, it would be the fact that America's consumer base, which has been so prone to overspending and borrowing more than they can afford, have now woken up to the reality and constraints of personal debt. Click to read more on payday loans.
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