Apple, AT&T, togetherness
p2pnet.net news view:- ATT is finally getting around to offering DSL to people who don’t use their brand of telephone service. It took the latest merger to do it but you have to wonder why they waited so long. As it is the FCC forced it on them as a condition of approval. They broke up Ma Bell for a reason and if she’s going to pull herself back together again she can expect demands from regulators. Had they not broken up the old AT&T it’s doubtful I’d be writing this or you’d be reading it. The explosion of the telecom-based Internet undoubtedly happened because ATT was pushed out of the way and no one besides ATT itself seems to be in any hurry to return to the old days. So ATT had to take a few hits to get the merger going but it really is more life support than onerous reg. So-called naked DSL was one requirement. I’m not sure this will have much traction however, it’s probably too little too late.
Friends in the property management business tell me new tenants don’t subscribe to land lines and they haven’t for some time. They all have cell phones but no wired home phone. They have TV of course so they pick what they want from the cable company. A bundled Comcast package of TV and broadband works just fine. The local telco isn’t needed.
They get their cable TV and Internet access and sometimes even the VoIP telephone thing, all with speeds well in excess of what ATT is offering. Monthly gig caps don’t seem to bother them much. I guess most of them aren’t BT junkies, but they like the quick hit that comes with higher speed cable.
Cable isn’t cheap. The new ATT deal is though, and maybe the 20 dollar price looks attractive, but whoa that 768 speed is from hunger. You can’t even stream video at those rates, and they gotta have YouTube.
On the other hand it might be a decent first time price for geezers, but along with their land yachts and their pals Toots and Mabel flapping in the rolodex those folks still have their land lines. Naked DSL won’t float their boat.
No siree, it’s those Internet savvy whippersnappers ATT is trying to woo, and boy do they need them. They’ve been dropping home phones faster than yesterday’s papers. This latest offer won’t change that though. Not a chance.
I’ve spoken at length with these kids. I’m familiar with ATT services, both POTS and DSL, and they are good values; rock steady and cap-free – but for young people that ship has sailed. I can talk up the benefits of ATT all I like yet they won’t even call for a quote, let alone buy a package. They look at me as if I’m trying to sell them membership in AARP.
They’ve left Ma Bell. She simply lost her allure. Whether cheap DSL, TV over phone lines or anything else in the way of new services can change that cold fact remains to be seen. I suppose if the guy who hates net neutrality and is infamous for greedily claiming he ‘owns the pipes’ buys ATT and tries to Frankenstein a dead phone monopoly back to life it means there is plenty to keep an eye on. Lucky for us however he’s just not the kind of operator who gets kids hot, nor one able to get the money they spend to finance his monopolistic Internet dream.
There is the coup he pulled with Jobs and his iPhone though, but did you notice? The celebration was grand for one day, then the hangover hit hard the next. Steve Jobs’ vision of total control is getting even weirder than the ATT guy.
So there’s my Nightmare of the Week: AT&T and Apple in bed together, along with Disney and the **AA. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with Orrin Hatch and his Digitally Restricted Manure bringing up the rear. Here’s hoping it’s just the DT’s.
Jack Spratts – p2p-zone
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January 24th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Doubtful the internet as we know it would exist had AT&T not been broken up in 1984? Had it not been for AT&T we would not have the internet. AT&T and it’s Bell Labs created UNIX, was instrumental in the creation of ArpaNet, the predecessor to the Internet, and of course “networked” the entire country with copper long before the term network was a household word. Had AT&T not been broken up, we would have had the internet and many other innovations (such as integrated cell and wireline service) much sooner.
January 24th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Perhaps, but at what cost? AT&T would be the only cell phone provider, the only Internet provider, and the only VoIP provider. It’s breaking up has spurred competition in these markets, although its cell phone mergers indicate that it’s trying to make up for that.