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Technology Stocks : Voice-on-the-net (VON), VoIP, Internet (IP) Telephony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (2471)	2/11/1999 3:11:00 PM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 3178

AT&T Not Worried About Cable Access February 11, 1999 WASHINGTON - (AP AT&T, which is buying cable giant Tele-Communications Inc., isn't worried for now that federal regulators might eventually force cable companies to sell access to their high-speed lines, its chairman said Wednesday. ''I don't think it poses any threat because I think the outcome is going to be that the industry is going to be open,'' said AT&T's chairman Michael Armstrong. Armstrong said it's in AT&T's financial interest to get as many companies as it can onto its high-speed networks. The company, along with the cable industry, opposes government-mandated access to cable companies' high-speed lines into their customers' homes. Instead, AT&T and cable companies support voluntary agreements for businesses offering competing services to gain access to the lines, which allow people to surf the Internet and receive data at speeds considerably faster than normal phone lines. Last week, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard said the agency would not force AT&T to sell TCI's high-speed cable lines to other companies as a condition of winning FCC approval for their merger. Kennard said the Internet is still in its infancy and doesn't need new regulations at this point. Consumer groups, public interest advocates, America Online and others had pressed the FCC to require AT&T to give other companies access to TCI's lines to offer competing services. Those groups have pressed for the same mandatory access requirements to apply to all cable companies. Last month, the FCC declined to open a proceeding that would force all cable companies to share their lines with rivals. But the agency said it would monitor the situation to make sure cable companies don't freeze out their rivals. Through its merger with TCI and a separate agreement with Time Warner, AT&T will have access to cable lines covering 40 percent of U.S. households. Armstrong said more cable agreements are needed to boost coverage to AT&T's goal of 60 to 70 percent of households. ''So ahead of us there has to be more deals, if you would, with cable companies,'' Armstrong said. Separately, Armstrong renewed his call for the FCC to make a deep cut _ $10 billion _ in government mandated fees that long-distance companies pay local phone companies to connect calls. A portion of the fee helps make local phone service affordable for the poor and people living in rural and expensive-to-serve areas. The fees, which are typically passed along to long-distance customers, have been going down and now make up about 30 cents of every $1 of long-distance charges. United States Telephone Association President Roy Neel said Armstrong's idea, if implemented by the FCC, would make local rates ''go through the ceiling'' and would put an end to affordable local phone service. [Copyright 1999, Associated Press]