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Press Release |
Contact: 202/462-6262 |
WASHINGTON - Following is a statement from Gene Kimmelman, co-director of the Washington, D.C. office of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, reacting to the announcement by the Federal Communications Commission approving the merger between AT&T and TCI:
"We are extremely disappointed that the FCC failed to impose conditions on this merger, which would prevent AT&T/TCI from inflating prices for their monopoly services, like cable TV, to finance investment in new markets. The Commission apparently fell into the trap of approving a deal on the hopes that it will promote competition to local telephone monopolies without guarding against soaring cable rates and inflated long distance prices for the majority of consumers who are not likely to have a choice of providers.
The FCC apparently disregarded its obligation to serve the public interest by closing its eyes to the pattern of price gouging and anti-competitive practices that AT&T's partner, TCI, has consistently engaged in. The likelihood that AT&T/TCI will inflate prices and block competition in the high speed Internet access market also appears to have been ignored. Unfortunately, the Commission's single-minded drive to find some form of local phone competition developing under the 1996 Telecom Act led the agency to disregard the immediate harm consumers will suffer at the hands of the AT&T cable and Internet-access monopoly."
