WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - June 29, 2010) - Effective July 1st, telecommunications giant AT&T will make good on its 2006 threat to increase prices on "special access" lines across the country, driving up the cost of providing broadband services to businesses and consumers. As of Thursday, AT&T is no longer bound by the price controls it agreed to as part of its acquisition of competitor and former sibling BellSouth, leaving large parts of the broadband economy, including consumers, small businesses and entrepreneurs, without protection from wildly excessive pricing, unreasonable terms and conditions and other market abuses.
"Special access" lines are the high-speed broadband lines used by nearly every sector of the U.S. economy every day, from ATMs and retail outlets, small businesses, public and anchor institutions as well as providers of competitive broadband services, eager to deploy broadband alternatives to the market.
"How can AT&T claim to participate in a competitive marketplace with declining costs when this price hike was announced over three years ago?" questioned NoChokePoints Coalition spokesperson Maura Corbett. "The only one celebrating independence here is AT&T. But their freedom from the terms of their BellSouth takeover means the rest of the broadband economy just sank further under its control. We are 'celebrating' this continued disaster by releasing the NoChokePoints ad interpretation of the monopoly game. Every time you play, AT&T wins!"
Maintaining a fair market for these lines has historically been a subject of concern to the FCC, but lay dormant during the Bush Administration. Current FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in contrast, has stated to Congress his intention to address this issue as a part of the Broadband Plan, although the FCC has yet to issue the data request it proposed over a year ago. Numerous Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have called for action over the past few years, including collection of any necessary data, in recent FCC hearings, as part of an ongoing 2005 Commission proceeding to reform the market.
"If the FCC were waiting for some sort of sign that small businesses, jobs and innovation are all directly suffering from this dismally failed market, AT&T just delivered it in red, white and blue," continued Corbett. "The broadband economy needs relief now, and the FCC can signal that help is on the way by taking immediate action to drive this proceeding to a conclusion."
About the NoChokePoints Coalition:
The NoChokePoints Coalition represents constituents, members, enterprise customers, competitive broadband providers and communities that rely on high-capacity "special access" lines. Access to a robust and competitive market for high-capacity broadband with reasonable prices and availability is the key to lasting economic growth, broadband deployment and job creation. Broadband access is a central part of the long-term agendas of the Obama administration, United States Congress, and the Federal Communications Commission. It is essential to the health of our information economy. To learn more about the coalition and how special access affects us all, please visit www.NoChokePoints.org.