What are FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s views regarding net neutrality?
Martin and Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate issued a joint statement following the FCC approval of AT&T’s merger. Not only does Martin believe “the conditions regarding net neutrality have very little to do with the merger at hand,” he and Tate say the concessions “very well may cause greater problems than the speculative problems they seek to address.” Essentially, Martin says there isn’t a net neutrality issue. He calls net neutrality an “ill-defined problem.” Beyond net neutrality, what other concessions are significant? AT&T agreed not to raise T-1 and T-3 prices in BellSouth territories for two years. The carrier also says it will offer DSL services to new customers at reduced prices starting at $10 per month. What happens to Cingular Wireless? AT&T is now full owner of the largest wireless service provider in the United States. Cingular was jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth. The carrier says it will immediately start selling bundled wireless and wireline services to customers.
