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To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1808)	11/3/1998 9:29:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 3178

More bureaucracy?, I hope not> OT>> AT&T Says No to High-Speed Access November 3, 1998 WASHINGTON - The Associated Press via NewsEdge Corporation : AT&T repeated its opposition Monday to being forced by the government to give other companies access to TCI's high-speed cable lines. America Online, consumer groups and major local and long-distance companies all have asked the Federal Communications Commission to require AT&T and TCI to let other companies use those lines to provide a range of services _ Internet, cable or phone _ to consumers. They say regulators should require this as a condition for approving AT&T's planned merger with Tele-Communications Inc. But AT&T Chairman C. Michael Armstrong, in a speech to cable TV executives, said access to TCI's high-speech lines should be negotiated among companies and not be mandated by the government. ''Customers should have easy access to the online content of their choice,'' Armstrong said. ''But that access should be through commercial arrangements, not regulation.'' TCI's high-speed cable lines, he said, are being built by private investment. ''Now some ... Internet service providers want the government to give them a free ride on those broadband pipes,'' Armstrong said. ''But getting a free ride on someone else's investment and risk is really not the way to do it. It's not fair and it's not right.'' Talking to reporters after the speech, Armstrong stopped short of saying AT &T and TCI would never accept a government-mandated access requirement to the high-speed lines as a condition of winning approval for the merger. Supporters of a mandated access requirement also want to make sure that consumers will have choices among Internet providers and won't be forced to have to use the one TCI has a financial stake in _ At Home. Armstrong, talking to reporters, suggested that after the merger TCI's high-speed cable customers could get the option of selecting their own Internet service provider _ maybe AOL at a reduced rate from AOL, such as $9.95 a month. But those customers still would have to pay TCI a monthly fee. And, those customers still would get At Home's Internet access service and online content, AT&T spokesmen said. Under such a scenario, ''You have got to pay $30 a month ... that will be divvied up between (the cable company) and At Home and you have to pay $9.95 to AOL,'' Armstrong said. ''There would be two bills: The cable company would bill and AOL would bill.'' [Copyright 1998, Associated Press]