For a company that paid $85 billion to become a video entertainment giant, AT&T has an odd idea of what’s essential and what’s not. In objections to a California Public Utilities Commission staff proposal, AT&T argued that “video entertainment” should play no role in determining what level of broadband service is “essential” and whether it’s affordable or not. It specifically targeted Netflix and ESPN+ as examples of non-essential services that are not “appropriate essential functions” and should not be included in calculations of what level of broadband speeds and data caps are necessary for Californians to conduct their every day lives.
In reply comments, the lobbying front organisation that Comcast, Charter Communications and other cable companies use to push their interests in Sacramento and at the CPUC endorsed AT&T’s position, paraphrasing it as “entertainment service such as Netflix is not essential”. It’s easy for the California Cable and Telecommunications Association to trash talk Netflix; the Walt Disney Company – ESPN’s majority owner – not so much.
AT&T and its amen corner got it wrong, for at least a couple of reasons. First, the CPUC staff white paper in question identified fixed broadband service at 20 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds as the minimum necessary for a Californian household to meet its “basic needs” such as education, telehealth and safety, and enjoy “full participation in society” by doing such things as “completing job applications and accessing government assistance programs”. Netflix and ESPN aren’t on the list. Neither is HBO Max, which AT&T is hoping will pull it out of the video subscriber death spiral it’s in, or Spectrum TV Essentials or Xfinity Instant TV. Calling out entertainment services is a red herring.
It’s also arrogant.
I’ve sat in many meetings in Sacramento and listened to telco and cable lobbyists speak with contempt about people who are misguided enough to think they ought to be able to watch video via the Internet, if they don’t provide sufficient profit to be worth it to those companies to deliver modern broadband service. Full participation in society requires more than just getting email or reading a web page. It includes access to the full range of online information and social and political interaction that’s available – and essential – to those of us who are fortunate enough to have it.