Speaking of press releases (see next item), the following is a press release from the Center for Digital Democracy in response to the news that SBC, which acquired Ameritech, and then basically acquired AT&T, is now going take over BellSouth, largely recreating the original AT&T monopoly for many consumers.
AT&T’s Takeover of Bell South: Bad for the Internet, Consumers, and Democracy: Deal will become Poster Child in Campaign to Protect the Net.
The expected acquisition of Bell South by AT&T (formerly SBC) reflects the strategy by the country’s largest cable and phone companies to build monopoly-styled businesses in both the broadband and interactive television markets. “AT&T wishes to be lord of the digital domain, able to impose a raft of tolls, fees and what they term “monetization” strategies for the Internet-whether it comes to us via wires or wireless devices,” explained Jeff Chester, CDD’s executive director. This proposed merger is the direct result of a recent FCC decision which eliminated long-standing safeguards for the Internet. AT&T can now operate its broadband platform (as well as its new digital TV service) as a privately controlled highway. Instead of the Internet reflecting what the federal courts not long ago called “the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, ” it’s now threatened to be reduced to what AT&T called their private “pipes.”
“AT&T’s ambition knows no bounds and places the future of the broadband Internet at risk,” said Chester. “AT&T believes that it can engage in a telecommunications power grab because of the largely pro-business attitude of the Bush Administration and the FCC. But they are sadly mistaken if they believe there won’t be intense opposition to this deal from all those who care for the Internet’s democratic and competitive future,” he added.
Since the 1996 Telecommunications Act (ten years old last month), there has been an unprecedented wave of mergers and consolidation in the telephone, cable, broadcast radio and television and newspaper markets. Instead of the competition promised by the cable and phone industry to Congress, consumers and citizens have faced higher rates for service and a critical loss of diverse editorial perspectives. “Americans deserve to be forewarned.
If we permit more take-overs, such as AT&T and Bell South, we will soon eventually witness a further shrinking of the number of conglomerates dominating our local and national media. Soon, super-media monopolies will emerge, as the cable and phone companies that control vast expanses of online communications seek to also acquire newspapers, broadcast stations, and TV networks. Eventually, the owners of the so-called competing broadband Internet wires of the cable and telephone industry will likely consolidate as well-a merger between Comcast and Verizon, for example, or a Time Warner with AT&T. Instead of having a communications environment that promotes freedom, creativity, and expression, we could witness an ever-dwindling number of major corporations controlling an unthinkable array of the most powerful media outlets.
“AT&T will claim that this merger is necessary to ensure “broadband deployment,” a measure in the lobbyist-written 1996 Telecommunications Act. But what we need foremost is broadband democracy,” explained Chester.
The Center for Digital Democracy is a non-profit Washington, DC-based group promoting a diverse and democratic broadband media system. Jeff Chester’s book on the threat to the Internet by recent policies will be out this Fall, entitled “Digital Destiny.”