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AT&T is promising to offer cheaper Internet service to poor people if it's allowed to buy DirecTV. This is similar to a promise that helped Comcast gain government approval of its 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal.
Qualifying residents in areas where AT&T's top speeds are below 5 Mbps (that's not a typo) will be offered DSL service of "up to 1.5 Mbps, where available" for $10 a month, AT&T said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission last week. It'll be $5 a month for the first year before rising to $10 for the next three years. AT&T is proposing a four-year commitment in total.
In areas where AT&T's top speeds are higher, the company said it "will offer a broadband wireline DSL service at speeds up to 5 Mbps to households in AT&T's wireline footprint for $10 per month for the first 12 months of service (rising to $20 per month for the remainder of the term of the commitment)."
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Adrian Harvey on Thursday July 09 2015, @08:59AM
Better yes do what NZ has done and force them to split the physical cable owning bit in a separate wholesaling company. Then regulate that bit so you get multiple competing retailers operating on top and let the free market do something useful for a change! NZ did it by only allowing unintegrated wholesalers to bid on the government sponsored regional fibre build, but making it happen in a merger approval would be good too....