Illinois Cable Association Calls AT&T Bill "Trojan Horse"

Business Wire, Feb 22, 2007

DES PLAINES, Ill. -- The following statement can be attributed to Joan Etten, President of the Cable Television and Communications Association of Illinois:

"The AT&T/SBC proposed legislation is nothing but a Trojan Horse, designed to carry their selfish agenda into the homes of cable customers across the state. It is laced with empty promises that are disingenuous and will only serve to fatten their corporate wallet to the detriment of consumers. First and foremost, they completely ignore the fact that they can already compete against any company they wish to and in fact are preparing to do so in several communities. Also, the FCC already provides for a 90 day negotiated timeframe with local governments making their charges of lengthy delays to negotiate agreements phony. Free and open competition is already available to them and exists in Illinois.

Next, their charges of exorbitant rate hikes mix apples and oranges and hide the truth. This company promises to drive down rates but they won't tell you that in their home market of San Antonio they have raised rates twice in six months. Their own vice president of product and strategy, Jeff Weber, recently said, 'The notion of competing just on price doesn't make sense to us.' Which AT&T/SBC are we to believe, the one that paints a rosy picture for Wall Street or the one that promises a panacea to consumers?

Consumers today receive infinitely more channel offerings, even for basic cable service, than they did ten years ago. Technology has been significantly upgraded and the product delivered has improved greatly.

Their promises of economic development should be measured against their past performance which shows time and again how they convince unions they'll create jobs only to later lay off hundreds or thousands of workers. The truth is, they will use the very same workers that are now in place for telephone service to do any infrastructure build out. AT&T/SBC's promises are full of holes, and would not contribute anything to the state's economy

Perhaps saddest of all are their claims is the one of more revenue to municipal government. Make no mistake, local government will lose money under the AT&T/SBC pie-in-the-sky proposal. Public access for education and government will suffer and local government will be left holding the responsibility to originate, produce, edit and deliver cable programs they have no ability to manage. The "local" in local programming will cease to exist. It will be governed and managed by a bureaucracy at the ICC, an entirely new and costly responsibility for a state whose finances can ill afford it.

Also disturbing is AT&T/SBC's hidden agenda to redline communities with their service. Under their plan, they can pick and choose the most affluent areas to deliver their product, leaving the majority of customers unserved. They will base that upon economic factors meaning that many minority communities will suffer.

I hope that lawmakers in Illinois will remember HB885, where four years ago SBC ramrodded legislation through the general assembly with stealth precision in order to raise their wholesale rates. That law was ultimately overturned in the courts. We cannot allow consumers here to be SBC'ed again.

The Cable Association looks forward to a full and open debate as the rewrite of the telecommunications bill gets underway in Illinois. Then the smoke screen of AT&T/SBC will be fully exposed for what it is--another chapter in their long and sad history of duping consumers into believing they will offer a superior product for a lower price."