AT&T

FirstNet, with all 50 states, 5 territories and DC on board, brings public safety their own, dedicated communications platform to help them save lives and protect communities. I’m proud to unveil the new visual identity for FirstNet products and services. Designed with only public safety in mind, this brand is rooted in 3 essential elements:

Once tax reform is signed into law, AT&T plans to invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T US employees — all union-represented, non-management and front-line managers. If the President signs the bill before Christmas, employees will receive the bonus over the holidays. [AT&T announced on November 8 that it would step up US investment by $1 billion if a tax bill passed.]

AT&T is pleased to announce the launch of a new service – Real-time Text (RTT) – that replaces teletypewriter (TTY) and brings communications for people with hearing loss and speech disabilities into the 21st Century.  RTT is a text-based communication service that alleviates many of TTY’s short comings.  TTY requires turn taking, allows for the use of only a small set of device-generated characters, and is very slow.  With RTT, each text character is transmitted and received in near real time, allowing for a conversational flow of communication, simultaneously with voice.

Over the past week, there has been a lot written about what happens to the internet assuming the Federal Communications Commission adopts the proposed order, circulated Nov 22, at its next scheduled open meeting. I would suggest that most of what has been written falls in the category of misinformation and rhetorical excess. I thought I might try something different and attempt to limit us to a discussion of facts. The short answer is, of course, that there will be no change in how your internet works after the order is adopted.

April 26, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he would open a proceeding to revisit the question of whether Congress directed the FCC to regulate the internet using the regulatory framework adopted in 1934 for the monopoly-era telephone networks. To be clear, this proceeding is not about whether the open internet will continue to be protected and preserved. That question has been asked and answered repeatedly and in the affirmative by Democratic and Republican Administrations alike for well over a decade, first with the Powell and Martin Internet Principles, then with the Genachowski Open Internet Order...

[T]he question of this moment is not whether the internet will remain open – it undoubtedly will. The question is how, as a country, we will regulate the Internet ecosystem – including not only Internet service providers and the broadband infrastructure they deploy, but the tech companies that now dominate the Internet experience. The question is also whether Congress will commit on a bi-partisan basis to adopt a balanced and durable statutory framework that will enshrine reasonable rules for the digital road with specificity and clarity. That, in the end, is the only way to resolve the open internet debate once and for all.