AT&T faces challenge over cable-phone goal

Article Abstract:

AT&T Corp. is committed to meeting its end-of-year goal signing up up to half a million customers for its phone service via cable-television lines: the company currently has 40,000 customers. The company reports that it is signing up new customers for the beefed up service at 15,000 a month. Meanwhile, Bell Atlantic is cutting into AT&T's long-distance consumer base. AT&T faces obstacles in rebuilding old cable systems, finding qualified field personnel and the company's integration issues with the acquisition of MediaOne.

United States, COMMUNICATION, Communications, Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Services information, Statistical Data Included, AT&T Corp., T

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Phone giants discover the interactive path is full of obstacles; films on demand? For now, what most will offer is old-fashioned cable TV; headaches of the hardware

Article Abstract:

The Baby Bell companies are severely scaling back their commitments to build interactive TV services because they drastically underestimated the costs and misunderstood the capabilities of hardware components. The seven Baby Bell companies separately announced around 1993 that they would develop their own interactive TV systems to compete directly with the cable television industry. The publicity that the Baby Bells generated seriously overstated the ability of the companies to deliver on their promises. The Baby Bells were the natural entities to develop interactive systems because they had the physical network and the technical expertise to handle such an undertaking. The realities of hardware, costs and the market have conspired to derail their plans. The companies did not understand that the hardware required for interactive systems was expensive and underpowered. Another derailing factor is the potential deregulation of the telecommunications industry, which would force the Baby Bells to protect their core businesses.

Interactive CATV, Forecasts and trends, Industry trend, Time Warner Inc., Design and construction, U S WEST Inc., USW, TWX, Digital television, Interactive television, Pacific Telesis Group, PAC, AIT, Ameritech Corp., Industry Trend Or Event

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Right number? In Southern California, Cox Communications rattles a Baby Bell; cable firm's efforts signal that local phone service can handle competition; a door-to-door approach

Article Abstract:

Cox Communications, the cable-TV company, is offering telephone services in Orange County, CA, and about 5,000 households have signed on. Until recently, it was generally believed that a cable company could not compete successfully against a Bell company. For one thing, cable companies have been regarded as too unreliable for communications as critical as telephone services. Now, however, perceptions seem to be changing, especially since Jun 1998, when AT&T agreed to acquire TCI. A cable push into telephony and Internet access is apparently now regarded as plausible. Cox is charging its customers $9.99 per month for the first phone line and $4.99 for a second. PacBell is charging a flat rate of $11.25 per line.

Telecommunications, Telephone Communication, Regional Bell Operating Companies, Local telephone services, Cox Communications Inc., Local telephone service

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