Free Republic

AT&T has agreed to buy Time Warner, parent of CNN and other Atlanta-based properties of the Turner broadcasting business, for $85.4 billion, the companies announced Saturday night.

Donald Trump expressed that he would not approve the AT&T and Time Warner merger if elected president. "Deals like this destroy democracy," said Trump during a rally in Gettysburg, Pa., on Saturday, where he discussed what he would do in the first 100 days of his presidency.

It's the NY Slimes so only source URL is provided.

ATT was in my neighborhood today promoting U-verse. I haven't had any experience with it and have been on Time Warner for a long time. Is Uverse any better than Time Warner? Time Warner over the past year has been a disappointment in a lot of areas. I'm more interested in data and internet than TV and plan to keep the POTS line. ATT offers a dedicated 24 meg line. TWC is 20ish and a lot of times I don't think it's that much. It's probably shared through the area. I've run speed tests and got anywhere from 15-19.

AT&T Reveals Secret Plan For Wi-Fi Even Faster Than Google Fiber http://www.forbes.com/sites/shelbycarpenter/2016/09/20/att-secret-plan-wifi-fast-google-fiber/#376df98e643b Tech #AllThingsMobile Sep 20, 2016 @ 08:03 PM AT&T Reveals Secret Plan For Wi-Fi Even Faster Than Google Fiber Shelby Carpenter  Think Google Fiber is the hottest thing in Internet connectivity? Well, there’s a new kid on the block in the unlikely form of wireless stalwart AT&T. The new plan, called Project AirGig, was announced in a press release on Tuesday and AT&T says it comes as the result of over 10 years of research and 100 patent applications for new technologies. AirGig is still highly experimental, but...

Last week, AT&T launched a new loyalty program dubbed AT&T Thanks, offering rewards to customers, especially those who bundle together wireless and pay-TV services from the company. This morning, Citi fired back at the Death Star, alleging that AT&T is stomping all over Citi’s “ThankYou” trademark. For several years, Citi has had trademarks protecting its “ThankYou from Citi” credit card rewards program, while AT&T more recently filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its “AT&T Thanks” mark. That AT&T mark was published for opposition this week, and it looks like Citi has a problem with it. Citi has...

Any home where at least one person receives food stamps will be eligible for the new program, called Access from AT&T. The offering is part of an agreement AT&T (T, Tech30) made with the FCC as part of last year's DirectTV merger and will be available until 2020. The company is the latest to offer discounted internet to low-income households in the United States, joining Comcast (CCV), Google Fiber, and some local government and nonprofit. These programs help close the so-called "digital divide" for families who would otherwise be forced to rely on school connections or cell phones. A lack...

Last week we noted how AT&T has effectively conned the press into believing the telecom giant is engaged in a massive gigabit fiber to the home build, despite the fact that the company's CAPEX and fixed-line network investment budget continues to drop. In reality, AT&T's singling out high-end developments and universities (where fiber is already in the ground) for highly selective gigabit service, then declaring an entire market "launched."

A newly found security flaw could be affecting every Android device on AT&T or Verizon’s wireless network, according to an advisory posted by the Carnegie Mellon University CERT database. The vulnerability in question targets LTE wireless networks and takes advantage of the way some US carriers have implemented the technology on their respective networks. Users on T-Mobile network are reportedly not affected. A group of South Korean researchers, on Friday, reported about a vulnerability that puts a large pool of Android devices -- every version of Android including Marshmallow -- in the United States at risk. If exploited, attackers...

That Carly Fiorina was a one-woman wrecking crew during her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard was never in doubt. But what follows is a tale that is now being picked up and distributed as the Republican Party seeks a nominee who combines business savvy and executive know-how. Sadly, the former executive who most closely fits this particular bill also has exhibited the kind of corporate arrogance and blind certitude that came close to sinking what had been considered among the world’s best technology companies: Hewlett-Packard. At HP beginning in the mid-1990s, Fiorina was responsible for the ill-fated merger with Compaq,...

On August 24 officials from the Obama administration will be attending the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) conference in Mexico City. The ATT was signed by Secretary of State John Kerry on September 25, 2013 but never ratified by the US Senate. Nevertheless, Gun Owners of America reports that Obama officials will be in Mexico City for the conference. Breitbart News previously reported that the ATT is an international gun control treaty designed to be implemented apart from, or in spite of, the general framework of governance for countries that are signatories to it. Thus, while it will not do...

The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003...

The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003...

In the wake of two videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted fetal body parts, Republicans in Congress are working to ensure that Planned Parenthood is stripped of its federal funding. However, it’s not only the government that fills Planned Parenthood’s coffers. According to 2nd Vote, a website and app that tracks the flow of money from consumers to political causes, more than 25 percent of Planned Parenthood’s $1.3-billion annual revenue comes from private donations, which includes corporate contributions. 2nd Vote researched the corporations and organizations to find which supported Planned Parenthood and found that more...

MADISON, Wis. – Democrat Milwaukee County prosecutors tapped the email and text communications of conservative activists as part of a five-year probe aimed at bringing down Republican Gov. Scott Walker, affidavits reviewed by Wisconsin Watchdog reveal. One target of the spying operation told Wisconsin Watchdog the methods used to keep tabs on Wisconsin residents were like those of the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program. “It was actually worse because (Milwaukee County prosecutors) were taking the body of emails and looking at actual data,” said the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from the prosecutors....

AT&T wants to make a deal. America's second-largest mobile telephone provider and its largest landline provider wants to purchase DirecTV, the satellite television provider, for $49 billion. Regulators routinely have to sign off on such mega-deals. At least in theory, they do so in the interest of protecting the freedom of the marketplace from monopolistic practices. But in this case, the regulators are not protecting consumers — instead, the Washington Post reported last week, the Federal Communications Commission appears to be using this deal as a bargaining chip to buy off one of the larger and better-funded sources of opposition...

OK, I've just watch the Nth iteration of Madison Avenue's everlasting attack of the last domestic enemy, the White Male (WM)! In recent memory there were the series of stupid Caucasian (non-Hispanic variant) men who 'starred' in the SPDR Fund ads. Now we have the AT&T ad campaign with the current one showing the husband/father totally unable to manage while the all-knowing female was away. A previous ad in this campaign had an equally clueless WM in a Real Estate Agency group of 4 much smarter women.

Bidding for the RadioShack brand and customer data has ended, but not before Apple weighed in on the proceedings, saying that information collected during the sale of its own products should be left out of the deal. A shuttered RadioShack store, via Ted Eytan. The hedge fund Standard General was the top bidder with $26.2 million for RadioShack's brand name and customer data. The same firm bought out Radio Shack's 1,700 store leases in March, as noted by Bloomberg. But as the bidding process was underway in a Delaware bankruptcy court, Apple joined the proceedings with a filing of its...

AT&T settles with FCC over customer data that was stolen from data centers overseas and used to unlock stolen mobile phones. AT&T has reached a $25 million settlement with the Federal Communications Commission over stolen customer data from three international call centers. The data breaches took place at contracted call centers in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines, and involved the unauthorized disclosure of almost 280,000 U.S. customers' names, full or partial Social Security numbers and unauthorized access to protected account-related data. The FCC said the information obtained from these breaches was used to unlock codes for stolen phones. Workers at...

The Internet regulations the FCC quietly passed last month have finally been disclosed. The LA Times reports: “The FCC’s action was strongly opposed by AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and other broadband providers as well as most Republicans. AT&T hinted at a likely legal challenge of the regulations Thursday.” Chuck Ross at The Daily Caller cross-referenced the nearly 400 pages of new regulations and found the organization Free Press referenced 46 times, while making the case for the so-called “net neutrality” regulations. He also pointed out who is behind the group: “It has received $2.2 million in donations from progressive...