Re: AT&T's Cable Telephony Agreement with Insight Communications
Thread- Another significant event that has drawn little attention. Maybe it's because T has already cried wolf with their STILL ongoing negotiations with Time Warner. That PR was done early last year. To this day, still no agreement has been reached between T and Time Warner for T to provide local phone service to all of Time Warner's customers.
This time, same story but smaller MSO. This MSO, Insight Communications, has 1.6 million customers. 1.6 million customers is nothing to sneeze at, but this is not extremely significant in itself. What is significant is the agreement can be used as a model for T to get access to a LOT of homes via remaining MSO's cable plants. -MikeM(From Florida)
PS See linked, "who wrote post 6465," above for a significant FCC ruling that went unoticed by the mainstream media. IMO, things are going well for AT&T's ambitious plans. One day the media may agree and write something postitive about the $120 billion risk Mike Armstrong took.
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Insight Communications, AT&T In Pact To Offer Local Phone Service
NEW YORK -- AT&T Corp. struck a deal with Insight Communications Co. to provide phone service over Insight's cable-television lines in the Midwest.
Most of New-York-based Insight's (ICCI) customers are located in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Insight already operates a cable venture with AT&T in the Midwest.
The tentative agreement calls for Insight to market, sign up and bill for AT&T-branded local phone services. AT&T would install and market switching equipment at Insight's cable head-end, where video and other broadband signals originate, and also will be the "local exchange carrier of record."
Pressure is mounting on AT&T to deliver on its ambitious promise of offering local phone services over cable-TV lines. AT&T has so far committed more than $120 billion to buy major cable concerns, with an eye on turning itself into a major force in the local-phone business. As part of that plan, AT&T had hoped to cut phone pacts with all the big cable-TV operators. The idea was to link arms with the industry and gain access to most of the U.S. on par with the Baby Bell telephone firms.
Despite more than a year of trying, AT&T has yet to strike a major phone pact. AT&T had hoped to use a Time Warner Inc. agreement as a model for phone deals with other cable companies, but now that America Online Inc. has set plans to buy Time Warner, the outlook is unclear. AOL has its own telephone ambitions, which could put it at odds with AT&T. |
