IP: DEAL WITH AT&T HALTS BALLOT ITEM ON INTERNET USE Edupage, July 3 2000

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>
>AT&T has agreed to allow competitors to access its networks in
>Massachusetts by 2002, ending open access advocates' efforts to
>place a state-wide open access question on November's ballot.
>The ballot question initiative, headed by venture capitalist J.
>Christopher Grace, was expected to spark a massive advertising
>campaign by AOL, AT&T, and other large Internet companies.  "The
>bottom line is that consumers will have this choice a lot faster
>than if we had the government telling us what to do," says AT&T's
>Richard D. Jenkinson, noting that if successful, the ballot
>question would have spawned a legal battle of several years.
>Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) commends the arrangement as "the
>best voluntary open access agreement to date anywhere in the
>country." (Boston Globe Online, June 28 2000)