54. Anton Troianovski, “AT&T May Try Billing App Makers,” Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2012, available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577249080966030276.html?mod=googlenews_wsj.
55. Colin Weir, “AT&T Mulls Third-Party Billing for Data,” ETI Views and News, March, 2012, http://www.econtech.com/newsletter/march2012/march2012a2.php.
56. “U.S. Telecommunications and U.S. Cable and Satellite: Nature vs. Nurture” (Bernstein Research, May 2012), 27.
Chapter 14. The Costly Gift
1. “Terry Huval F2C Interview,” YouTube video, 00:36, posted by “Fiberevolution,” April 3, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bp0nvXxsks.
2. Ibid., at 02:22.
3. Ibid., at 07:38.
4. Phillip Dampier, “Lafayette Municipal Fiber Provider Filing Complaint Against Cable Co-Op over Access,” stopthecap.com, June 14, 2010, http://stopthecap.com/2010/06/14/lafayette-municipal-fiber-provider-filing-complaint-against-cable-co-op-over-access/.
5. Rick Jervis, “Louisiana City Blazes High-Speed Web Trail,” USA Today, February 5, 2012, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-01/broadband-telecom-lafayette/52920278/1; John, “LUS Fiber Financials Covered in Local Media (and More),” Lafayette Pro-Fiber (blog), August 10, 2011, http://blog.lafayetteprofiber.com/2011/08/lus-fiber-financials-covered-in-local.html.
6. Christopher Mitchell and David Morris, “The Battle Is Raging for Control of the Internet—And Big Corporations May Come Out on the Losing Side,” AlterNet, June 21, 2010, http://www.alternet.org/media/147267/the_battle_is_raging_for_control_of_the_internet_—_and_big_corporations_may_come_out_on_the_losing_side/?page=entire.
7. “FTTH Economics,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Community Broadband Networks. http://www.muninetworks.org/content/successes-and-failures.
8. FTTH Council, “Municipal Fiber to the Home Deployments: Next Generation Broadband as a Municipal Utility,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Community Broadband Networks, April 9, 2008, http://www.muninetworks.org/reports/municipal-fiber-home-deployments-next-generation-broadband-municipal-utility.
9. Mitchell and Morris, “Battle Is Raging for Control of the Internet.”
10. “Chattanooga Community Fiber Network Profiled on the Southern Way,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Community Broadband Networks, 03:35, posted by “christopher,” November 29, 2011, http://www.muninetworks.org/content/chattanooga-community-fiber-network-profiled-southern-way.
11. “Knoxville News Station Envious of Chattanooga Fiber Network,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Community Broadband Networks, 01:30, posted by “christopher,” January 4, 2012, http://www.muninetworks.org/content/knoxville-news-station-envious-chattanooga-fiber-network.
12. Christopher Mitchell, “Tennessee Bill to Encourage Economic Development Killed by Telco Lobbyists,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Community Broadband Networks, May 3, 2011, http://www.muninetworks.org/content/tennessee-bill-encourage-economic-development-killed-telco-lobbyists.
13. Jonathan Feldman, “Global CIO: What North Carolina's Broadband Battlefield Means to You,” InformationWeek, June 2, 2011, http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/229900048.
14. Joey Mornin, “How Time Warner Cable Is Spending Millions to Fight Municipal Broadband in North Carolina,” Morninj (blog), May 10, 2011, http://www.morninj.com/2011/05/how-time-warner-is-spending-millions-to-fight-municipal-broadband-in-north-carolina/.
15. “Community Broadband Preemption Map,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Community Broadband Networks, http://www.muninetworks.org/content/community-broadband-preemption-map.
16. FTTH Council, “Award Recipients,” http://www.ftthcouncil.org/en/content/award-recipients.
17. Glenn Fleishman, “The Killer App of 1900,” Publicola, December 11, 2009, http://publicola.com/2009/12/11/the-killer-app-of-1900-2/.
18. James Baller, “The Essential Role of Consumer-Owned Electric Utilities in Developing the National Information Infrastructure: A Historical Perspective,” paper presented at the American Public Power Association Annual Telecommunications Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, October 31–November 1, 1994, available at http://www.baller.com/library-art-history.html.
19. Moody's Magazine, October and November 1906, available at http://www.baller.com/pdfs/Moody's.pdf.
20. Comments of the American Public Power Association, Proposed Rule Registration of Municipal Advisors, Securities and Exchange Commission, February 22, 2011, available at http://www.publicpower.org/files/PDFs/SECCommentsS74510MunicialAdvisors02222011.pdf.
21. Craig Moffett, Nicholas Del Deo, Regina Possavino, and Patricia Pan, U.S. Telecommunications, Cable & Satellite: The Dumb Pipe Paradox, Revisited (Washington, D.C.: Bernstein Research, June 11, 2009), 19.
22. Bernstein Research, “U.S. Telecommunications and U.S. Cable & Satellite: Nature Versus Nurture,” May 2012, 105.
23. FTTH Council, “The Growth of Fiber to the Home,” available at http://www.ftthcouncil.org/en/content/the-growth-of-fiber-to-the-home; “Media Solutions Strategies,” Thrive, accessed March 10, 2012, http://www.thrivemovement.com/media-solutions-strategies-1.
24. John B. Horrigan, Broadband Adoption and Use in America, OBI Working Paper Series no. 1 (Federal Communications Commission, February 2010), available at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-296442A1.pdf.
25. Federal Communications Commission, “National Broadband Plan,” 9, 135.
26. Om Malik, “Finally, 100 Mbps Everywhere (If You Have Comcast),” GigaOM, April 14, 2011, http://gigaom.com/broadband/finally-100-mbps-everywhere-if-you-have-comcast/.
27. Mark McDonald, “Home Internet May Get Even Faster in South Korea,” New York Times, February 21, 2011, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/technology/22iht-broadband22.html; Vaiva Lazauskaite, Developments of Next Generation Networks (NGN): Country Case Studies (Geneva: International Telecommunication Union, 2009), 36–7, 66–68; Karl Bode, “Australia's Labor Party Win, FTTH Build Greenlighted,” DSLReports.com, September 8, 2010, http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Australias-Labor-Party-Wins-FTTH-Build-Greenlighted-110255; Stacey Higginbotham, “BT Openreach Building a 300 Mbps Open Network,” GigaOM, October 5, 2011, http://gigaom.com/broadband/bt-openreach-building-a-300-mbps-open-network/.
28. If you subtract capital expenditure (investments in expanding networks) from operating cash flow, you get “free cash flow.” Comcast is spending more than 30 percent of its free cash flow on “return of capital to shareholders,” that is, dividends and buybacks. The telephone companies, AT&T and Verizon, spend 40 percent of free cash flow on dividends and buybacks. Meanwhile, capital expenditures for all of these companies are steadily decreasing as a yearly percentage of revenue. See Bernstein Research, “U.S. Telecommunications and U.S. Cable & Satellite: Nature Versus Nurture,” May 2012.
29. Comments of the Fiber-to-the-Home Council, In the Matters of International Comparison and Survey Requirements in the Broadband Data Improvement Act, et al., Federal Communications Commission, GN Docket No. 09–47 et al., November 6, 2009, 3.
30. Sharon K. Black, Telecommunications Law in the Internet Age (Waltham, Mass.: Morgan Kaufman, 2002), 25.
31. Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. (New York: Vintage, 2004), 553.
32. Marguerite Reardon, “FCC Unveils National Broadband Plan,” CNET News, March 15, 2010, http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20000453-266.html; Jil Nishi, Deputy Director, U.S. Libraries, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary to the Federal Communications Commission, October 5, 2009, http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7020040706; FTTH Deployment Assessment (Boston: CSMG, October 13, 2009), available at http://s.ftthcouncil.org/files/ftth_deployment_assessment_-_corning_10_12_09_final.pdf.
33. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, “Increases and Decreases to Discretionary Spending in the President's Budget,” The Bottom Line (blog), February 15, 2011, http://crfb.org/blogs/increas
es-and-decreases-discretionary-spending-presidents-budget; The Budget for the Fiscal Year of 2012: Department of Defense (Washington, D.C.: Office of Management and Budget), 64, accessed March 10, 2012, available at http://m.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/defense.pdf; “Simplified FTTH Installation Brings Increased Job Possibilities at Reduced Costs,” paper presented at the FTTH Conference and Expo, Orlando, Florida, September 26–30, 2011, 3, available at http://www.m2fx.com/wordpress_m2fx/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/m2fx_FTTH_Council_Whitepaper_2011.pdf.
34. Sen. Al Franken, interview with the author, September 30, 2010.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to several generations of students from several different schools, including Keith Klovers, Olivia Greer, Michael Steffen, Anjali Dalal, Eric Null, Shane Wagman, Hanna Siegel, and Daniel Goldmintz. Special thanks to Clay Risen, Representative Ed Markey, Senator Al Franken, Colin Crowell, and the dozens of people from across the media and telecommunications landscape in America who talked to me but did not want their names used in this book.
INDEX
Aaron, Dan, (i), (ii)
Abbott, Ernest Hamlin, (i)
ABC, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii)
Abdoulah, Colleen, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)
Abernathy, Kathleen, (i)
Adelphia, (i), (ii)
Advertising revenues, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)
Aggregators in online video, (i)
Al Jazeera, (i), (ii)
Amalgamated Copper, (i)
Amazon, (i), (ii)
American Cable Systems (early name of Comcast), (i)
America Online. See AOL
Ameritech, (i), (ii), (iii)
Anderson, Henry, (i)
Angelakis, Michael, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)
Antitrust: Microsoft litigation, (i); railroad industry, (i). See also AOL–Time Warner; Justice Department; Sherman Antitrust Act; Vertical mergers and integration; specific headings starting with “Merger”
AOL: as dial-up service, (i); early success of, (i); separated from Time Warner, (i); vulnerability of, (i), (ii)
AOL–Time Warner: benefits of, (i); Comcast and NBCU merger compared to, (i), (ii); in failed vertical merger, (i), (ii); hailed as symbol of new era, (i); losses recorded by, (i); mismatch of corporate styles, (i), (ii); negative predictions about merger, (i); and online video, (i); pricing to allow open access, (i)
Apple, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi). See also iPads
Arango, Tim, (i)
Arbitration, (i)
AT&T: acquiring and divesting Western Union, (i); and Apple devices, (i); attempt to get into local phone markets, (i); and auctions of low-frequency spectrum, (i); Broadband Internet Access Policy Statement, agreement to, (i); cable and Internet divisions bought by Comcast, (i), (ii); in cellphone market, (i); cooperation with Comcast not to compete head to head, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv); Digital One flat rate, (i); divestiture (1984), (i), (ii), (iii), (iv); ending unlimited data plans, (i); lobbying in opposition to FCC control of Internet access, (i); market share of cable industry, (i); market share of wireless industry, (i), (ii), (iii); Modified Final Judgment (MFJ, 1984) and, (i); monopoly power of (1970s and 1980s), (i); pay-TV business attempt of, (i); pole-attachment control, (i), (ii), (iii); pricing, (i), (ii); purchase of TCI, (i); reverse billing proposed by, (i); seeking release from obligation to provide phone service to all Americans, (i); and usage-based billing, (i), (ii); wireline compared to wireless business, (i). See also Merger of AT&T and T-Mobile; Wireless access
Auctions of additional spectrum for digital communications, (i)
Auletta, Ken, (i)
Baby Bells, (i)
Baker, Jonathan, (i)
Baker, Meredith Attwell, (i)
Baldrige, Malcolm, (i)
Baran, Paul, (i)
“Baseball arbitration,” (i)
Baxter, William, (i)
“Beachfront” low-frequency spectrum, (i), (ii), (iii)
Bell Atlantic, (i), (ii)
Bell Canada, (i)
BellSouth, (i), (ii)
Bell System, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v). See also AT&T; Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs)
Benkler, Yochai, (i)
Bennahum, David, (i)
Bernstein Research: on agreement of Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon to joint market, (i); on cable market size, (i); on Comcast's wealth, (i); on failure to have national plan for telecommunications, (i); on NBC's faltering programming, (i); on reverse billing proposal of AT&T, (i)
Bewkes, Jeff, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi)
Beyers, Tim, (i)
Bissinger, Buzz, (i)
BitTorrent, (i), (ii)
Black, Hugo, (i)
Black Family Channel, (i)
“Block booking,” (i)
Bloomberg, (i), (ii), (iii)
Bloomberg, Michael, (i)
Blue Skies: A History of Cable Television (Parsons), (i)
Bock, Paul, (i)
Born, Brooksley, (i)
Boucher, Rick, (i)
Boxee, (i)
Brand X case (2005), (i)
Bravo, (i), (ii)
Brewer, David J., (i)
Bribery, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)
Britt, Glenn, (i)
Broadband, (i), (ii), (iii)
Broadband Internet Access Policy Statement (FCC), (i), (ii)
Broadcasters: and balance of power, (i); charging cable for redistribution rights, (i); historic business model of, (i); retransmission consent of, (i), (ii)
Broadcasting and Cable: on diversity pledges of Comcast, (i); on lobbying against 1992 act, (i)
Brodsky, Julian, (i), (ii), (iii)
Brown, Jesse, (i)
Buffett, Warren, (i)
Bundled Internet Explorer with Windows, (i)
Bundled resold wireless access, (i)
Bundled services from cable providers, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii)
Burke, Stephen (Steve), (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii), (ix)
Bush, George W.: deregulatory agenda of, (i); veto of 1992 act, (i)
Cable Communications Policy Act (1984), (i), (ii)
Cable industry: advantage over phone industry, (i); advertising on cable channels, (i); blending connectivity with content, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv); broadcaster-cable relationship, (i); clustering in, (i), (ii), (iii); content acquisition, (i); FCC jurisdiction over, (i); fighting over municipal franchises, (i); generational differences in customers of, (i); lack of government oversight, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv); lobbyist control over rules affecting, (i); market explosion of, (i); monopoly power of, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi); pre-1992 development, (i); rates, (i), (ii), (iii); similarities to wireless, (i); speeds degraded by congestion, (i); and TV Everywhere potential, (i). See also Comcast; Time Warner
CableLabs (Cable Television Laboratories), (i)
Cable-modem service, (i), (ii)
Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act (1992), (i), (ii), (iii). See also Retransmission consent of broadcasters
Cablevision, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii)
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, (i)
Canadian usage-based billing, (i)
Captive audience of pay-TV subscribers, (i)
Carnegie, Andrew, (i)
Case, Steve: ahead of his time, (i), (ii); on AOL–Time Warner merger, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv); on broadband as future, (i); ignorance of Time Warner structure, (i); at QuantumLink, (i); start of AOL, (i), (ii)
CATVs (community antenna television systems), (i)
CBS, (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii)
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), standard, (i), (ii)
Cellphones. See Wireless access
Central Pacific Railroad, (i)
Charter, (i), (ii), (iii)
Chernow, Ron, (i), (ii), (iii)
Chicago, Comcast in, (i), (ii)
Cicconi, James, (i), (ii),
(iii)
Cingular, (i), (ii)
Class action against Comcast in Philadelphia area (2011), (i)
Clinton, Hillary, (i)
Cloud-based services, (i)
Clyburn, Mignon, (i)
CNBC, (i), (ii)
Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age Page 45
