AT&T story is less than complete

Dear Editor:

I have been following the emergence of a competitor for the cable television business in Tennessee and in Blount County these past two years, so the article about AT&T plans to spend $400 million on cable buildout in our state, as reported in the July 2, edition of The Daily Times, was of immediate interest to me.

I was disappointed that the writer of the article failed to mention AT&T plans and previous success in gaining access to the cable TV monopoly in the rest of the nine-state region of the former BellSouth Telecommunications Company. By implication, if AT&T averages spending $400 million in each of the former BellSouth states, a total of more than $3.5 billion will be spent on their efforts in the coming years to offer choice in entertainment, telephone and Internet services.

The city managers of Maryville and Alcoa were acknowledged in the article for their effort to insure they could apply “all city standards to a state-franchised firm,” although Alcoa City Manager Bill Hammon seems skeptical about AT&T coverage in the rural areas, a concern addressed and agreed upon by the company at the insistence of the state and spelled out in the legislation he helped to get passed into law. It seems that if the manager’s concern about “cherry-picking” by AT&T were to apply to municipal governments, annexation procedures would have to meet the same criteria.

The article concludes by giving Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham quite a bit of space to express his skeptical view about the matter of an AT&T statewide franchise, as well as an anecdote about his inept use of the modern telephone. He seems to think that his being offered the opportunity to make use of an optional feature is somehow tied in to basic service rate increases. His Honor’s telephone must not have a re-dial button. Either that, or he doesn’t know how to use it.

I would conclude by giving the newspaper editorial staff a “less than satisfactory” mark for the approval of the above mentioned article as written, and my thanks for providing a forum for which consideration would be given for my own opinionated comments pertaining to same.

Gratefully,
Harry Draper
1212 Havenwood Drive
Maryville, TN 37804
BellSouth retiree,
39 years, 3 months service.