AT&T has told the US Federal Communications Commission that if the watchdog enacts new net neutrality rules it will switch off its s U-verse IPTV/broadband service.
AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told the Wall Street Journal that he will reconsider expanding the U-verse if the FCC brings in neutrality rules. U-verse has offered IP video and Internet since June 2006. Last year AT&T proudly announced U-verse's two millionth TV customer across a service area of 22 states.
However AT&T has constantly rolled back forecast of the number of homes it would serve. It has also tried telling U-verse broadband subscribers that AT&T reserved the right to temporarily reduce throughput speeds when "a customer is using other U-verse services in a manner that requires high bandwidth." In otherwords while you are watching HD telly, your Internet will go down. So, it is not surprising that that AT&T wants to avoid net neutrality laws.
However there are indications that AT&T has already slowed down U-verse deployment under the current rules. Looking through the annual reports, it seems that AT&T has been a bit reluctant to invest in U-verse and now it has a handy scapegoat.
The advantage of blaming the FCC is that it sends a message to the Senate “don't give these guys more power”.
Abandon the idea or a kitten dies
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