50 US cities pen letter to FCC demanding net neutrality, democracy

[swake]

How about AT&T merger with Time Warner??   Even more monopolism.  Bad for us.  Bad for US.

And how about that CEO of AT&T - President of the Boy Scouts...  yeah, I know - "fulfilling a tradition" in inviting Trump to talk.  But mostly sucking up so this merger will go through better/faster.

Time Warner is a content company, they spun off Time Warner Cable a few years ago, which was then swallowed by Charter a year ago along with Brighthouse and is now called Spectrum. I'm not saying the merger is a good thing, but it's not really related to Net Neutrality.  It's AT&Ts play to become more like Comcast.

[TeeDub]

I think it will all be moot in a few years when we all use drones or satellite for our interwebz.   (I'm sure all the microwaves will also give us superbabies.)


https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/23/15861658/ajit-pai-fcc-oneweb-approval-satellite-launch-space-internet

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/02/facebook-drone-aquila-internet-test-flight-arizona

[heironymouspasparagus]

Time Warner is a content company, they spun off Time Warner Cable a few years ago, which was then swallowed by Charter a year ago along with Brighthouse and is now called Spectrum. I'm not saying the merger is a good thing, but it's not really related to Net Neutrality.  It's AT&Ts play to become more like Comcast.

More monopolism/oligarchy.  Less capitalism.

[swake]

More monopolism/oligarchy.  Less capitalism.

We will see if it works. The old AT&T, before they were bought out by SBC, tried to be an everything media company and went down in flames. The Comcast that exists today really started when Comcast bought out the spun off AT&T Cable about 15 years ago.

I was there when AT&T lost control and ended up dying. I ran the first group that tried to sell consumers cells phones, internet, cable and phone services all at the same time by one person. It was a nearly impossible feat that we somewhat pulled off. But it was too costly to do and AT&T then was too dysfunctional.

[heironymouspasparagus]

We will see if it works. The old AT&T, before they were bought out by SBC, tried to be an everything media company and went down in flames. The Comcast that exists today really started when Comcast bought out the spun off AT&T Cable about 15 years ago.

I was there when AT&T lost control and ended up dying. I ran the first group that tried to sell consumers cells phones, internet, cable and phone services all at the same time by one person. It was a nearly impossible feat that we somewhat pulled off. But it was too costly to do and AT&T then was too dysfunctional.

They understood wired telephones and really not much else - after the Bell system breakup, they floundered dramatically.  You must have really enjoyed THAT ride..!!   Not!!   SWMBO was SBC for 25 years and STILL getting hosed by that company - as all retirees are - years after being forced into retirement...

Their horrendous lack of management is what sent T down the tubes.  And the raping/pillaging on long distance...it's no wonder Verizon came along and grew so fast!   I still have a long distance prepaid card I carry just as reminder - there are still about 600 minutes on it...I called about two weeks ago and checked!

After the SBC guy - can't remember his name - started stitching Bell back together, it was SBC that pulled all the Bells along and got it working again.  He had already gotten a few of the baby Bells before going after T.   I think it was a kind of 'paternal' emotional thing for him more than good business sense - all he had to do was wait and T would have disappeared in a few years anyway and they could have scooped up the remains for nothing.  They did get a lot of fiber and long lines, so maybe that was worth $16 billion...or close to it.

Whitacre.  Ed Whitacre...  funny how little triggers can get you to remember 20+ year old stuff...

[swake]

They understood wired telephones and really not much else - after the Bell system breakup, they floundered dramatically.  You must have really enjoyed THAT ride..!!   Not!!   SWMBO was SBC for 25 years and STILL getting hosed by that company - as all retirees are - years after being forced into retirement...

Their horrendous lack of management is what sent T down the tubes.  And the raping/pillaging on long distance...it's no wonder Verizon came along and grew so fast!   I still have a long distance prepaid card I carry just as reminder - there are still about 600 minutes on it...I called about two weeks ago and checked!

After the SBC guy - can't remember his name - started stitching Bell back together, it was SBC that pulled all the Bells along and got it working again.  He had already gotten a few of the baby Bells before going after T.   I think it was a kind of 'paternal' emotional thing for him more than good business sense - all he had to do was wait and T would have disappeared in a few years anyway and they could have scooped up the remains for nothing.  They did get a lot of fiber and long lines, so maybe that was worth $16 billion...or close to it.

Whitacre.  Ed Whitacre...  funny how little triggers can get you to remember 20+ year old stuff...

My company was just a vendor in the project, but one that was majority owned by AT&T. The conference calls were epic. 40 people on the call and they all hated each other and cared for more about protecting each of their little fiefdoms than success. You could watch the company dying in real time.

Then as part of the AT&T meltdown, we were sold off to be majority owned by Newscorp. Which was even more fun.

[Hoss]

My company was just a vendor in the project, but one that was majority owned by AT&T. The conference calls were epic. 40 people on the call and they all hated each other and cared for more about protecting each of their little fiefdoms than success. You could watch the company dying in real time.

Then as part of the AT&T meltdown, we were sold off to be majority owned by Newscorp. Which was even more fun.

TV Guide?

[swake]

TV Guide?

Yes, at that time it was called United Video and then TV Guide. United Video bought TV Guide Magazine from Newscorp and we renamed ourselves TV Guide. That deal was also how our majority ownership changed from AT&T to Newscorp. It was something like a $5 billion deal.

When we sold the magazine years later we sold it for $1.

[Hoss]

Yes, at that time it was called United Video and then TV Guide. United Video bought TV Guide Magazine from Newscorp and we renamed ourselves TV Guide. That deal was also how our majority ownership changed from AT&T to Newscorp. It was something like a $5 billion deal.

When we sold the magazine years later we sold it for $1.

Wow.  I had quite a few co-workers down through the years who had previously worked for TVG...hell, even when I worked at Bender Direct Mail we did a lot of you guys' mail and I remember we got confused during the sell off when we'd get work orders with United Video on them and then almost the same orders with TV Guide.  I remember a division (maybe I'm mistaken) called Superstar that got written up on work orders and I remember writing an FTP script for you guys so you would no longer have to courier 9-track tapes to us.  That ages me.

[swake]

Wow.  I had quite a few co-workers down through the years who had previously worked for TVG...hell, even when I worked at Bender Direct Mail we did a lot of you guys' mail and I remember we got confused during the sell off when we'd get work orders with United Video on them and then almost the same orders with TV Guide.  I remember a division (maybe I'm mistaken) called Superstar that got written up on work orders and I remember writing an FTP script for you guys so you would no longer have to courier 9-track tapes to us.  That ages me.

Yes, I worked for Superstar and for TV Guide Enterprise Solutions. Many years ago. Superstar is still there, kind of, it was sold to Dish Network as the old C-Band dishes died. I used to manage the relationship between TV Guide/Superstar and Dish.