IP: STANDARDS ON HIGH-SPEED NET SERVICE MAY SET NATIONAL PATTERN

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> X-Sender: craig () mail lw net
> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 12:43:47 -0400
> To: OpenDTV Mail List <OpenDTV () pcube com>
> From: Craig Birkmaier <craig () pcube com>
>
> STANDARDS ON HIGH-SPEED NET SERVICE MAY SET NATIONAL PATTERN
> Following a large number of complaints about the quality of
> AT&T's AtHome Internet service, the Fremont City Council in
> Fremont, Calif., was expected Tuesday night to adopt rules
> requiring AtHome to offer the same levels of service as cable TV,
> a move that analysts say has broad ramifications for the entire
> industry.  In addition to frequent outages and slow downloads,
> Fremont subscribers to AtHome often had very long waits for
> service calls.  The new rules, proposed by an advisory committee
> consisting of AT&T employees as well as AtHome customers, would
> require AT&T to answer 90 percent of support calls within 30
> seconds and to fix 95 percent of problems resulting in a loss of
> service within 24 hours.  As the monopoly holder of the local
> cable franchise, AT&T must obey Fremont's city regulations.
> While Los Angeles has already passed similar rules, Fremont is
> of particular interest to cable operators and local governments
>  because the city was chosen three years ago for the first
> commercial launch of AtHome. (Los Angeles Times 10/06/99)