It Wasn’t That Long Ago
Just one or two reminders if you please…
*****From The San Francisco Chronicle June 2006*****
“AT&T Rewrites Rules: Your data isn’t yours”
“AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday [June 23, 2006]. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers’ personal data with government officials. The new policy says that AT&T — not customers — owns customers’ confidential info and can use it “to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.”
“AT&T is also believed to have participated in President Bush’s acknowledged domestic spying program, in which the NSA was given warrantless access to U.S. citizens’ phone calls.”
This quote also squeezed into this article…
“AT&T’s new and former privacy policies both state that ‘conducting business ethically and ensuring privacy is critical to maintaining the public’s trust and achieving success in a dynamic and competitive business climate.’
Both also state that ‘privacy responsibility’ extends ‘to the privacy of conversations and to the flow of information in data form.’ As such, both say that ‘the trust of our customers necessitates vigilant, responsible privacy protections.’
David Lazarus - San Francisco Chronicle
*****From BusinessWeek, November 2005*****
“At SBC It’s All About Scale and Scope”
[Former] CEO Edward Whitacre talks about the AT&T Wireless acquisition and how he’s moving to keep abreast of cable competitors
Q. - How concerned are you about Internet upstarts like Google, MSN, Vonage, and others?
A - “How do you think they’re going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain’t going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there’s going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they’re using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?
The Internet can’t be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!”
Lest we all forget!!! The Damn Pipes Are Already Paid For!
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Richard Whitt has posted a very informative follow-up on the Google Public Policy Blog: “Restoring competitive balance to the upcoming spectrum auction”
Richard is a “Washington Telecom and Media Counsel.” He mentions this, after giving us an extremely informative look at this auction process Google is about to take part in;
“That is why Google has indicated that it is willing to spend a minimum of $4.6 billion in the auction, which is the FCC’s reserve price for the particular spectrum block in question. At the same time, incumbents are unable to leverage anti-competitive blocking in this scenario. Regardless of who wins the bidding, however, the end result is an auction that yields a fair market price, with the added bonus of a new broadband network that is open to all comers. The American people get full value for their spectrum, plus open broadband platforms — and even the possibility of a real third pipe competitor. Not a bad deal overall.
If the FCC ultimately decides not to adopt open platforms conditions that “un-skew” the 700 MHz auction, we believe it is unlikely that robust new broadband competition will emerge. In that case, our country would have lost a golden opportunity. Nonetheless, we remain optimistic that the FCC will stand up for its stated public policy goals, and pave the way for a much brighter broadband future for all Americans.”
Tags: 700-MHz-auction, Google-Bids-On-Spectrum, Open-Applications, Open-Devices, Open-Networks, Open-Services, spectrum-auctionRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Web Happenings, Web News
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