Gov. Mitch Daniels was supposed to make a ceremonial splice of a fiber optic cable during AT&T;’s major job announcement on Tuesday afternoon, but he was unsuccessful.
Luckily, Daniels does not work for AT&T.;
At a news conference, the company announced it was hiring 475 people statewide, most of which would be installing the U-verse system into homes around the state.
“In Indiana, we like overachievers,” Daniels said. “And AT&T; has overachieved.”
The announcement follows several similar moves from AT&T; during the past year. In March 2006, the Indiana General Assembly passed House Bill 1279, commonly known as the Telecommunications Reform Bill.
Since that point, AT&T; has announced 1,500 jobs for Indiana. This includes 425 workers at a call center currently open in Indianapolis and 600 workers at a customer care center in Evansville that will open next month.
George Fleetwood, AT&T; Indiana president, said about 60 percent of the announced new jobs had already been hired. About two dozen of those would possibly be from Anderson, he said.
Fleetwood, Daniels and Rep. Jack Lutz, R-35, sat in front of a soy bean field north of the intersection of Scatterfield Road and Cross Street as they announced the company expansion was in direct correlation to the passing of HB 1279.
The location represented the goal of AT&T; and the state to introduce the technology to urban and rural areas, Fleetwood said. The neighborhood in which the news conference took place already has the service.
“This isn’t the heart of Anderson,” he said.
U-verse allows high-definition television, Internet and phone services to go into homes through fiber optic technology.
According to AT&T;, U-verse offers 100 percent Internet Protocol-based television service. The system sends a single signal to a television for one channel rather than several signals that a user chooses from. By doing this, the bandwidth is opened up, allowing the signal to go faster.
Fleetwood said the system eventually would make the television experience more interactive. Also, the company would like to offer channels a la carte with the system, but the networks are not as keen on the idea.
U-verse is in direct competition with cable television, Fleetwood said.
“It’s better than cable,” he said. “It has a greater array of entertainment.”
Kathy Douglass, Northeast district vice president for Insight Communications, said Insight was ready for the competition.
“Basically, we’ve been dealing with competition for several years,” she said. “This is a new type of competition. They do not service all the areas, they just service certain areas.”
AT&T; still only offers the service in a small part of Anderson compared to the cable company, Douglass said.
“I don’t know what their footprint is now,” she said. “It’s pretty small compared to cable.”
Insight also uses fiber optics for some of its services.
“Our broadband service is faster,” Douglass said.
The main difference between the services, Douglass said, is that U-verse users will have to have a signal box for every television in the home, while cable only requires one.
“We provide excellent service, and we provide one of the best service opportunities,” Douglass said. “We’ll come out ahead in the competition when people try other services.”
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John P. Cleary
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Discussion
September 18, 2007
6:27 p.m. UPDATE: AT&T to compete for TV consumers
Insight says it’s ready for the competition
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