

FCC Grants Approval of AT&T-DirecTV Transaction [pdf] - linksbro
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-334561A1.pdf

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TheBiv
"The conditions imposed by the Commission address potential harms presented by
the combination of AT&T, one of the nation’s largest telephone and Internet
service providers, and DIRECTV, the nation’s largest satellite video
provider...These targeted conditions, which generally will remain in effect
for four years after the merger closes"

So the commission admits that there are potential harms of merging two large
firms, but will only keep the conditions that prevent these harms from
happening for only 4 years.

Why would the commission see the potential harm of combining these two large
enterprises and yet have time bound conditions like Non-Discriminatory Usage-
Based Practices, Discounted Broadband Services for Low-Income Subscribers and
Internet Interconnection Disclosure Requirements around for only 4 years?

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wtallis
AT&T is only interested in DirecTV because AT&T's DSL services don't have
enough bandwidth to carry simultaneous TV and Internet service. The DirecTV
acquisition is a stopgap until AT&T can catch up to DOCSIS/Fiber networks, at
which point satellite TV will be mostly dead regardless of whether AT&T buys
them or not. If the conditions and restrictions work as intended, then by the
end of the four year period AT&T will be on a more level playing field with
the cable companies and their conflicts of interest should be managed through
industry-wide regulations.

~~~
PaulHoule
It's hard to believe that AT&T has any serious intention of improving their
network.

If they wanted to spend $50 billion they could run optic fiber to 50 million
houses at $1000 a house, then they would have a competitive network in every
way.

~~~
tsomctl
My boss told me something interesting the other day. AT&T has been around for
a hundred years, and they have ran a lot of copper wire over those years. They
also hired a lot of linemen to maintain the copper wire, and they eventually
formed unions of workmen that maintain copper wire. AT&T is interested in
rolling out fiber for several reasons, but one of which is that they get
cheaper labor because they bypass the union. The union contracts are written
in terms of copper wire, they say nothing about fiber optic, so the annoying
unions can be ignored.

Also, AT&T has been pretty good about rolling out fiber to businesses at
least. I can thing of several older buildings with numerous T1 circuits and
plenty of pots lines, yet AT&T still added fiber. Every brand new building
that I've been in is served by fiber, for internet, phones (pri trunking), or
a data connection to another campus. There are only a couple of pots lines for
backup. They might not be too interested right now about running fiber to
residentials, but they are very interested in running fiber to businesses.
It's possible that it's simply not profitable enough right now, but I can't
think of any reasons why the technology won't trickle down eventually.

Source: I work as a subcontractor of a subcontractor of AT&T, basically
installing Cisco routers and equipment in businesses.

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xntrk
I wonder what the AT&T unlimited TV package will look like. I assume it will
be limited to 10 hrs of TV a month, and then once you go over you only get
commercials.

~~~
function_seven
You're being too harsh. They'll probably just downgrade from HD/16:9 to SD/4:3
after you've exceeded your 10 hour limit. And you will always have the option
to rollover hours you didn't watch last month!

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devhead
they are getting closer to their final form.

let them keep wasting their profits on old business models, their well will
dry up soon enough.

~~~
tosseraccount
How did the model work for for recording artists?

MP3 killed the CD and Apple replaced MTV. Now the artists don't make as much
money.

~~~
SEJeff
And I'm sure Taylor Swift was so sad that evil spotify was stealing all of her
due profits, so she pulled her songs from their service.

The whole industry is garbage, for both successful and indie artists.

~~~
Karunamon
Perhaps that's a good thing. I look at the content market wrt. movies and
music and see a thing that would be better off not existing, leaving the field
for those who do work for the love of their craft.

~~~
justizin
> leaving the field for those who do work for the love of their craft.

In their free time, after their accounting gig?

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AaronM
Time for me to cancel my DirectTV

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tosseraccount
I'm waiting for Apple to acquire a common carrier.

~~~
justizin
Seriously?

