att – Page 5 – Steve Blum's Blog

AT&T’s executive shuffle puts WarnerMedia chief in charge of broadband service

4 September 2019 by Steve Blum
att, competition, monopoly, netneutrality, public policy

AT&T made two key executive promotions yesterday, naming erstwhile technology chief Jeff McElfresh to head up its broadband and telephone (landline and mobile) businesses, as well as DirecTv, and promoting WarnerMedia head John Stankey to president and chief operating officer, making him the clear second in command to chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson.

Stankey’s new job, according to an AT&T press release is “bringing together the distinct and complimentary capabilities of AT&T Communications, WarnerMedia and [advertising subsidiary] Xandr to deliver…the benefits of a modern media company”.… More

Unanimous approval by key committee sends AT&T’s deregulation bill to a vote of the full California senate

3 September 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, broadband, cpuc, voip

When the legislative dust settled on Friday, after a whirlwind morning in which the fate of hundreds of bills were announced after being decided behind closed doors in Sacramento, assembly bill 1366 remained alive. Carried by assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (D – San Diego) would, on the face of it, simply extend an existing ban on regulation of “Internet Protocol enabled communications services”, including voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone service.

Given the increasing number of consumers switching – and being switched without their consent – from legacy copper-based plain old telephone service (POTS) to VoIP since the regulatory ban went into effect six years ago, AB 1366 spells a de facto end to state oversight of broadband and telephone infrastructure and service in California.… More

Led by AT&T meltdown, big U.S. pay TV companies take a dive in second quarter

31 July 2019 by Steve Blum
att, charter, comcast, cord cutting, DISH

AT&T’s video businesses bled out in the second quarter of 2019, losing nearly a million net subscribers. Its two old school linear platforms, the DirecTv satellite service and the DSL-based Uverse service, hemorrhaged 778,000 subscribers while its DirecTv Now streaming platform took a 168,000 subscriber hit.

Actually, it’s the DirecTv Then platform – its new name, announced yesterday, is AT&T TV Now.

It’s a similar, if less gruesome, story for the other three major U.S.… More

Money talks or AT&T broadband walks, CPUC study shows

25 July 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, public policy, uc berkeley

How much money you and your neighbors make determines whether or not you have access to modern broadband service and infrastructure. The network practices study released on Monday by the California Public Utilities Commission cites conclusive evidence of aggressive redlining by AT&T. It is a major – and actionable – report that makes the case against the two companies, but its conclusions come as no surprise.

A study done in 2017 by U.C. Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society found that…

The median household income of California communities with access to AT&T’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network is $94,208.

… More

When Californians are trapped in monopoly telecom markets, AT&T and Frontier take the money and run

24 July 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy

Competition matters. When telephone or cable companies face a competitive threat – either from each other or from an independent Internet service provider, they respond by upgrading infrastructure and service, and by cranking up the volume on promotional discounts. The converse is true: no competition means no infrastructure investment or service upgrades or marketing love.

That’s a lesson I’ve learned time and again with municipal and independent broadband projects. When a city or an independent credibly threatens to enter the market, incumbents respond.… More

AT&T redlines poor and rural Californians because it can, Frontier because it can’t afford otherwise, CPUC study says

23 July 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy

Corporate choices made by AT&T and Verizon, and Frontier Communications’ dire financial condition created the growing divide between relatively modern telecoms infrastructure in affluent urban and suburban communities, and the decaying infrastructure in poor and rural ones. The result is “deteriorating service quality”, “persistent disinvestment”, an “investment focus on higher income communities” and an “increased focus on areas most heavily impacted by competition”, according to a study done for the California Public Utilities Commission by a Boston-based consulting company.… More

Tahoe’s broadband speeds lag far behind California’s average

25 June 2019 by Steve Blum
att, broadband grades, charter, monopoly, tahoe

Broadband infrastructure in South Lake Tahoe, and the Tahoe basin in general, is poor. Based on the latest broadband availability information released by the California Public Utilities Commission, no city or unincorporated community around Lake Tahoe gets an infrastructure grade of better than F+.

In a presentation to the South Lake Tahoe city council, I discussed how the city ended up with an F on its broadband report card. The two primary wireline broadband providers are AT&T and Charter Communications, and their service reports clearly show that, as of 31 December 2017, neither had upgraded their facilities to the Californian average and were unable to deliver even a minimum acceptable speed level to consumers.… More

Don’t expect fast rural broadband from AT&T or Frontier, lobbyists tell CPUC

1 May 2019 by Steve Blum
att, connect america fund, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy

Judging from presentations made by AT&T and Frontier Communications lobbyists at a California Public Utilities Commission workshop on Monday, the companies have no plans for significant upgrades to rural broadband service, comparable to urban improvements, despite taxpayer subsidies. Which doesn’t bode well for a $2 trillion infrastructure spending deal announced yesterday in Washington, D.C.

Rural broadband infrastructure was one of the few specific items that came out of a meeting yesterday between president Donald Trump, house speaker Nancy Pelosi and senate democratic leader Chuck Schumer.… More

AT&T, Comcast blamed for stonewalling burnt out Paradise residents, as CPUC approves broadband grant pilot

26 April 2019 by Steve Blum
att, casf, comcast, cpuc, public policy

The California Public Utilities Commission decided to be more generous with broadband construction subsidies for low income home owners and tenants yesterday, but also took aim at AT&T, Comcast and other big telecoms companies that refuse to take advantage of state broadband subsidies or cooperate with communities that need service. Commissioners voted to raise the proposed limit of $5,300 on line extension program grants to $9,300 per household, as they unanimously approved implementation plans for the $5 million pilot project, paid for by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).… More

AT&T hides 4G digital divide behind 5GE facade

29 March 2019 by Steve Blum
4G, 5G, att, digital divide, mobile broadband

AT&T’s 5G_^E scam is unravelling. Measurements taken by an independent testing company, OpenSignal, show that slapping a phony 5G label on upgraded 4G LTE service does not make the user experience any faster.

According to OpenSignal’s blog post…

Some AT&T users in the U.S. have recently seen “5G E” appear on the status bar of their existing smartphones, replacing 4G. This move has sparked controversy because AT&T is using updated 4G network technologies to connect these smartphone users, not the new 5G standard…

Analyzing Opensignal’s data shows that AT&T users with 5G E-capable smartphones receive a better experience than AT&T users with less capable smartphone models…But AT&T users with a 5G E-capable smartphone receive similar speeds to users on other carriers with the same smartphone models that AT&T calls 5G E.

… More