AT&T could have been providing service for years

Tag : switch cabinets

Local governments will have no say over what AT&T -- or anyother TV service provider, for that matter -- can say or do withits offerings.

In fact, a city official says Madison tried to lure AT&T tocompete with Charter 's cable service for at least two years beforethe state Legislature passed a bill (pushed heavily by AT&T)aimed at encouraging video competition.

"AT&T could have been providing service here in Madisonfor years, had they been able to work out a deal with us, "said Brad Clark, manager of Madison City Channel and former citycable coordinator. "The discussions didn 't go anywhere."

Slow start for service

U-verse TV is currently offered in parts of more than 100communities in Wisconsin, AT&T spokesman Chris Bauer said.

Service began in the Milwaukee area, including Racine and Kenosha,in early 2007. It became available June 30 in parts of Green Bayand the Fox River Valley. So far, it has not prompted a big switchby cable customers.

West Allis, for example, had 18 U-verse customers as of March 31,compared with about 16,000 for Time Warner Cable. "So there 'squite a disparity, " said Jerry Musial, West Allis video/cablecommunications coordinator.

In Milwaukee, AT&T 's U-verse had 3,325 subscribers at the endof 2007, or about 3 percent of the cable market there, comparedwith 95,992 subscribers to Time Warner Cable, according to thecompanies ' reports to the city, Milwaukee city clerk RonaldLeonhardt said.

At least 200 utility cabinets have been installed around Milwaukee,with many more to come, in what the company is calling ProjectLightspeed. Each cabinet, equipped with fiber optics that link to anearby telephone connection box, can serve an average of 300 to 350customers at a distance of about 3,000 feet, or more than half amile, AT&T 's Jansen said.

Leonhardt said his office received a number of complaints about theboxes. "(Some) people did consider them an eyesore. They alsosaid (the cabinets) blocked sight lines at alleys andintersections, " he said.

Leonhardt said that since the city raised those concerns, AT&Thas worked more closely with Milwaukee 's public works departmentand with City Council members to find better locations.

AT&T won 't say how many utility cabinets it plans to set up inMadison or how many already are in place. Fitchburg has five to 10of the boxes installed, with plans for about 20 in all, cityadministrator Tony Roach said.

Nationwide, AT&T 's goal is to sign up more than 1 millionU-verse TV customers by the end of 2008 within the 22 states servedby the company 's phone network. As of March 31, U-verse had morethan 379,000 subscribers.

"We 're trying to get it to as many people as we can, as fastas we can, " AT&T spokesman Bauer said, in Milwaukee.

Not all places covered

When the Madison area enters U-verse TV coverage, it will includeJanesville, Beloit and some communities in between. But it will notbe available in Middleton or a slice of Madison 's far West Side.Sun Prairie won 't be included, either.

That 's because U-verse TV will be offered only in places whereAT&T 's origins lie.

Think back before the mid-1990s, before the days of phonecompetition and corporate mergers, back to when a single telephonecompany handled local calls for a community. For most of Madison,that phone company was Ameritech, formerly Wisconsin Bell.

But areas such as Middleton, Cross Plains and Madison 's far WestSide were served by Mid-Plains Telephone, while Sun Prairie had GTEphone service.

UW-Madison telecommunication expert Barry Orton is concerned,though, that another type of exclusion could occur: bypassinglower-income neighborhoods. Orton says the new state legislationgives TV providers a wide berth.

"They decide, block by block, Do we want to serve thisneighborhood with this service? Let 's look at who pays for theirphone service, and we 'll go from the top to the bottom, ' "Orton says.

Under previous rules, a cable TV company negotiated a franchisewith a community, which set requirements for serving thepopulation. The new law puts cable TV administration in the state's hands, instead, and takes away the rights of local governmentsto make demands of the companies, Orton says.

"Charter, Time Warner or AT&T could theoretically say:neighborhoods that buy fewer services, have higher rates of piracy,where you have to send two employees on service calls, and wherethey don 't return boxes, they could say service is not available.They can do that legally, " Orton said.

AT&T 's Bauer says the company has "every incentive toroll out a new service to as many customers as possible, and do soaccording to the state law. " On a national level, "we've made a commitment to make U-verse available to more than 5.5million lower-income living units within three years as part of ourinitial deployment, " he said.

Still few options for TV

When telephone competition opened in the late 1990s, a string ofcompanies vied for your business. Internet and broadband servicespurred a similar frenzy of contenders. But that 's not the casefor TV.

So far, 19 applications for TV service franchises have beensubmitted to the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions.Only two include Madison: Charter and AT&T.

TDS and Verizon, local phone service companies that offer TV inother parts of the country, say they have no immediate plans toextend the service to Wisconsin.

As for prices, U-verse TV, as a single service, has rates rangingfrom $44 to $99 a month, depending on the number of channels andpremium services. Bundled with high-speed Internet, packages rangefrom $69 to $154 a month or higher, and options also are availablethat include landline phone or cellular service, or both.

Time Warner Cable has an online promotion featuring packages thatstart at $29.95 a month per service. For digital cable, high-speedInternet and digital phone service, that would add up to $89.85.

Charter won 't say if it will reduce rates when U-verse TV startshere. Current online offers include $99.97 a month for 12 monthsfor digital cable, high-speed Internet and telephone.

"I think what you 'll see in the marketplace is the prices ofthe bundles will be close, " said Tim Vowell, director ofgovernment relations for Charter in Wisconsin. "We don 'tbelieve the battleground is going to be a price war. We believe thethree components that are going to make a difference in a morecompetitive environment over the long term are the mix of services,reliability of service and customer service provided. "

AT&T 's biggest selling point may be that U-verse will includethe Big 10 Network and NFL Network; Charter does not but iscontinuing negotiations with both.

But public access, local government and educational programming arenot on separate channels on U-verse. They share a single channelnumber and are accessible after going through a series of on-screenmenus and then waiting for the program to load, "much likedownloading a video onto your computer screen, " saysMilwaukee city clerk Leonhardt.

"The quality of those is definitely far less than what we getthrough the regular Time Warner Cable, " he said.

AT&T 's Jansen says the technology is still new and willeventually improve. He says problems have been exaggerated. "Ithink people will be pleasantly surprised, " Jansen said.

To see more of The Wisconsin State Journal, or to subscribe to thenewspaper, go to http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com .

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