Judge: AT&T Needs Franchise in Connecticut
Overrules U-verse TV Decision by State’s Department of Public Utility Control
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 7/26/2007 3:56:00 PM
A federal judge in Connecticut ruled Thursday that AT&T’s U-verse TV multichannel-video service is a cable service under federal law, forcing the telco to obtain a franchise before furnishing service.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton reversed a ruling by Connecticut regulators last June that said U-verse TV was a two-way product that didn’t meet the federal “cable-service” definition, despite the similarity to traditional cable TV on viewers’ screens.
