How telecom consolidation leads to drinking

January 2, 2007
How is increased beer consumption related to consolidation in the telecom industry?

It struck me, as I was looking at some of the logos on the fields and watching commercials, that college bowl games and other sporting events have to find new sponsors in the wake of further consolidation in the telecom sector. Both service providers and equipment suppliers have been active in branding various events. A decade ago, it seemed every car in Indy racing was sponsored by some telecom industry player – the image of speed tied in nicely to fibre networks, I guess. Regional golf tournaments used to have regional phone companies sponsor them. How many AT&T; golf classics can there be?

College football, car racing, golf tournaments. Victims of corporate mergers. Don’t be surprised if we end up with more beer commercials as a result.

Did the FCC think of those kinds of issues?

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CRTC: hurry up and wait

January 25, 2017
CRTCThe CRTC released a Circular before the holidays that announced the Commission’s plan to delay consideration of two files because of the Minister’s proposed variance of the Local Forbearance Decision.

A little history. On September 1, the CRTC started a review of its market share loss criteria for local forbearance under a Public Notice. The CRTC has suspended that proceeding as well as consideration of TELUS’ application to substantially modify the quality of service criteria for forbearance.

Both proceedings could be rendered moot when the Minister’s proposed variance comes into effect.

I found it interesting that the Minister’s intervention, which was designed to accelerate forbearance, has the immediate effect of slowing down the CRTC’s review of these two forbearance related files.

Happy New Year

December 31, 2006
By every measure, today, New Year’s Eve day, is an incredibly light traffic day. Traffic is less than 15% of a normal Sunday. I hope that explains why I didn’t put a new posting up earlier.

I do want to extend my best wishes for a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year to all my readers.

I hope that I can continue to provide some insights and stimulate some debate and discussion about important telecommunications issues in the coming year.

I started blogging in February of 2006, inspired by the blog that my daughter kept as a record of her year abroad. She used the public diary to keep a record of her experiences, set out her political views and as a means to keep in touch with family and friends around the world. That power of the medium is what interests me most about blogging and I hope you will join in the discussion.

All the best. I’ll be back with substance to read while you enjoy your New Year’s Day bowl games.

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More than half of Humpty Dumpty together again

January 25, 2017

As I wrote this morning about the last minute deal offered by AT&T (NYSE: T) to gain FCC approval of its merger with Bell South (NYSE: BLS), I thought the net neutrality provisions were more sizzle than substance. But it was enough to win over the Democrats who clearly didn’t want to stand in the way of other benefits made possible by the merger.

The FCC approved the deal late Friday afternoon, clearing the final regulatory roadblock for the largest telecom industry merger in the US. The merged company will have close to $120B in annual revenues, nearly 70M access lines and about 300,000 employees.

January 1, 1984 was the day that AT&T spun out 7 regional operating companies. 23 years later, a large part gets put back together again.

AT&T’s net neutrality commitments

January 25, 2017

AT&T (NYSE: T) has made some commitments to the FCC in order to win approval for its merger with Bell South (NYSE: BLS). I wrote about some of these earlier.

The section on network neutrality begins with a commitment to uphold the FCC’s principles set out in a 2005 policy statement for 30 months following the closing date of the merger.

  • To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice.
  • To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.
  • To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network.
  • To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

These are pretty tame principles, explaining why some “save the internet” advocates sought greater anti-discrimination provisions, which AT&T goes on to provide with a 24 month sunset.

Why is AT&T only willing to sign up for 30 months to these basic FCC principles?

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