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AT&T Broadband To Merge With Comcast Cable
quualudes was one of the many people to
submit the AT&T Broadband/Comcast merger. CNNfn has more of the story as well. 72$ billion is the cost. Wow. I wonder how this affects @Home. One alert reader also submitted the news that Comcast will evidently by launching a video gaming channel - more information will be coming in February 2002.
http://www.att.com/press/item/0,1354,4135,00.html
Collecting data is only the first step toward wisdom. But sharing data is the first step toward community
Dammit, I switched to cable to get away from the chaos in DSL-land!
Comcast issues a more clear statement, saying they had brought AT&T flowers. The type of flowers were thought to be tulips, falling in with the funeral metephor.
Upon further inquiry, it seems AT&T has decided that they really just suck at being a large company and had to split once again, this time under their own influence, into several smaller companies.
If only certain other companies could make the same blundering mistakes to cause large debt requiring spinoffs....
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
As for the cable business, Comcast can only be an improvement. AT&T service was dismal, but typical of this truly out of date corporate dinosaur.
Now I guess I'll have only the Home Shopping Network, the weather channel, and the 3 (*3*!) religious-oriented channels left before I can finish posting this. Oh well, time to sell that TV and the TiVo and start reading again ...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
According to the press release on Comcast, AT&T stockholders will receive 0.34 share of Comcast for each share of AT&T they own, which is currently worth about $13.07. AT&T stock is currently selling for about $16-17. Unless there's some radical realignment in stock prices (e.g. Comcast getting hit because of the debt they're acquiring along with the assets), that means there's either some major synergy going on or else the market thinks that the rest of AT&T is worth about $4 :-) Hope it's the former...
Crap!
Just when I was hoping my damn connection would get stable. Got a signal to the cable modem a half hour ago after another 6 days outage after the 5 day outage during the excite debacle.
Now what, we gotta change all our settings, e-mail forwarding, accounts, etc.?
Can anyone recommend a high speed internet provider in Chicago that looks stable financially, and provides good service. And, dare I ask, has technicians that know their asses from gopher holes?
Or do I have to use the built-in 56K modem on my new iBook indefinitely?
Whatta pile a horse pucky!
They REFUSE to sell you anymore bandwidth, no matter what you are willing to pay...
Maybe for you, but not for Cox@Home or Comcast@Home (or Rogers@Home) customers. We still have @Home service until sometime before Feb. 28th...
To within half a percent, pi seconds is a nanocentury. -- Tom Duff
Read it closer... especially the last few lines.
They guarantee nothing, save that you get a bill.
Oh, and if you sue them, YOU pay the lawyer fees regardless of whether you win or lose.
Copy 'n pasted from the Second Example: (Caps and all...)
FINALLY, YOU AGREE TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY, AND HOLD HARMLESS AT&T AND THIRD PARTIES WHO CONTRIBUTE TO THE AT&T WORLDNET HIGH SPEED SERVICE FROM ANY LOSS, DAMAGE, OR COST (INCLUDING ATTORNEYS' FEES) RESULTING FROM YOUR VIOLATION OF THIS AGREEMENT OR ANY ACTIVITY RELATED TO YOUR AT&T WORLDNET HIGH SPEED ACCOUNT.
In the first two examples, read "You're Responsible" REAL closely.
More Examples:
http://www.attbi.com/general-info/policies.html
http://www.att.net/general-info/terms.html
http://www.att.com/terms/
As an ATT Broadband subscriber for TV, Internet, and PHONE, I can say that I have been following this case very closely. To sum up the whole bidding wars: its basically AOL vs. MSFT.
.NET, My services, even the Xbox cant be fully used without broadband. Earlier, Bill Gates said he thought the BB market was moving to slowly. If AOL were to get the deal, MSFT's plans would be severly crippled.
AOL was heavily looking into buying the corp which made MSFT very scared. MSFT's entire coming business plans rely on broadband:
MSFT started backing COX and COMCAST in the bidwars. I can say I am thankful that comcast won, even though its basically the least of the two evils (AOL vs. MSFT).
This deal is a lot more important than just ATT. It could play a huge role in both AOL and MSFT's core strategies.
the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
Let me get this straigt... What CAN you use their service for?
Finding a new service?
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
FINALLY, YOU AGREE TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY, AND HOLD HARMLESS AT&T AND THIRD PARTIES WHO CONTRIBUTE TO THE AT&T WORLDNET HIGH SPEED SERVICE BLAH BLAH BLAH I'M SO STUFFY GIVE ME A SCONE
Believe it or not, this is completely typical stuff probably cut-and-pasted out of a boilerplate terms and conditions for commercial service document.
Any time you sign up for any kind of service, from telephone all the way up to managed technical support like my company sells, you're told in the sales contract that you're waiving your rights to sue in case something goes wrong. It's right up there with the "no warranty express or implied, including guarantee of merchantability or fitness of purpose" language that goes in every software license agreement.
It's the company's way of saying, "Just because we're providing you with this product or service, don't think we're accepting the full and permanent responsibility for any deranged misuses of our product or service that you might think of with your sick little mind."
So if you violate the AT&T terms and conditions and they shut off your connection, thereby costing you umpteen million boxtops in lost business from your work-from-home pyramid scheme web site, don't think you can run to your lawyer and claim damages.
On the other hand, if AT&T violates their end of the bargain in any way-- although I can't think of an example; those T&C documents are usually pretty well written-- you still have all those rights and privileges that flesh is heir to.
So don't get all huffy about these conditions. They're nothing new or unusual.
Always a good time to see who owns what
AT&T sucks. They have managed to purchase a decent cable/broadband company and singlehandedly run it into the ground. Since AT&T's purchase of Mediaone, we've been subjected to increased downtime, crappy digital cable service, slow internet, awful customer service, all with them raising prices across the board. their digital box is the size of a VCR, has no hi-fi outputs (not that it matters, most of the channels are still analog), was designed 4 years ago, and the SLOW ASS interface is worse than my grandma's WebTV.
Crap. I just needed to rant about how much they sucked. Hopefully Comcast can improve the service a little. Personally I'll be happy if they can go for 6 months without changing their name. Since I subscribed, I had MediaOne for about 3 months, my cable was called MediaOne RoadRunner. Then it was AT&T Broadband, with AT&T RoadRunner for internet. Then the Internet was CALLED AT&T@Home, even though it was really the AT&T Broadband Internet network. Now it's called AT&TBI.