Conn. ruling leaves AT&T with cable TV designation

It has been nine months since AT&T got the green light for a statewide video franchise in Connecticut, but the saga of its search for the right legal and business conditions to operate in the state continues to play out. Late last week, a Connecticut judge dealt the telco's efforts another blow when she backed an earlier court decision that defined AT&T's U-verse offering as a cable TV service.

This controversy has been playing out for the last two years, when Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control declared that AT&T's services should not be defined as cable TV because they are based on Internet technology. AT&T has argued that the statewide video franchise given it by the Connecticut legislature last fall renders the debate over definitions moot. That franchising law does not take into account whether a service is defined as cable TV or something else.

The issue likely will remain hot until the Federal Communications Commission weighs in on whether or not AT&T's video efforts fall under the governance of federal Cable Act.

For more:
- read this report at Multichannel News

Related articles:
AT&T's path for a statewide video franchise was cleared last fall. AT&T report
AT&T recently targeted Tennessee for a U-verse roll-out. AT&T report