AT&T jumping in TV arena

AT&T has tossed its hat into the ring to join competitors EPB and Comcast in offering entertainment and communications services in Chattanooga.

AT&T Chairman, CEO and President Randall Stephenson said Friday his company will introduce its new U-Verse TV, Internet and voice service in Chattanooga this summer. His announcement came as the telecommunications giant held its annual meeting of shareholders at The Chattanoogan hotel.

U-Verse, delivered over AT&T’s Internet protocol network, will become the only 100 percent Internet protocol-based TV service offered in the city, he said.

“I had dinner with your mayor, and because of his commitment to open markets and competition, Chattanooga looks like an attractive place to invest capital,” Mr. Stephenson said.

In a product demonstration after the meeting, AT&T officials said U-Verse will compete with existing Comcast cable and EPB fiber-optic networks. It will offer features such as using an iPhone as a remote control or viewing screen, watching multiple stations covering a single event and the ability to pause a program in one room and resume watching in another, officials said.

Gregg Morton, president of AT&T Tennessee, said U-Verse is not your standard cable TV service.

“This provides for full-on DVR capability where you can stop it in the den and pick it up in any room in the house,” Mr. Morton said. “This Internet protocol technology will allow new services and features our competitors won’t be able to deliver.”

COMPETITORS RESPOND

But Harold DePriest, president and CEO of EPB, disagreed with AT&T’s analysis.

“They’re welcome to come in. We have a superior product that we believe will win out,” he said of his fiber-optic communications network. “May the best product win.”

Laurie Shipley, manager of public affairs for Comcast in Chattanooga, said it would not easily relinquish position in the region.

“This is a very competitive marketplace, and we certainly recognize that,” she said. “Our company continues to invest so we can provide the best products, services and overall value to our customers.”

In addition to syncing with users’ Internet and home phone systems, U-Verse will offer Yellow Pages searches, a customizable ticker called the U-Bar and integration with Internet photo-sharing site Flickr, said Will Widby, retail data manager for the Tennessee market.

“You can pull up your call history, and it works with your home phone,” Mr. Widby said. “We also offer users the option to display four feeds at one time on one screen,” a technology the company calls Multiview.

Mr. Stephenson said AT&T added 1 million new subscribers last year to the relatively new service. There are now 2 million customers.

Other topics addressed during Friday’s meeting of shareholders included issues raised by former presidential candidate the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Jim Frierson of the Tennessee Technology Development Corp.

After congratulating the company for its various diversity initiatives, Mr. Jackson urged AT&T to focus development on extending broadband to rural areas.

“Many of our rural areas in Appalachia do not yet have broadband,” he said. “While in the more concentrated areas it’s more lucrative, without Internet access these communities cannot attract business.”

Mr. Frierson urged AT&T to take advantage of what he sees as technological and regulatory advantages offered in Chattanooga, which make the city a prime candidate as a proving ground for emerging technologies.

“We hope you will look at cities such as Chattanooga, in addition to rural areas, and treat them as test beds,” Mr. Frierson said. “We appreciate your decision to bring this meeting here, to a community that really gets it.”

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