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For the Indian television channel owned by Madhyamam Group, seeMediaOne TV.
Comcast MO Group, Inc.
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryCable television
PredecessorUS WESTthenAmerican Telephone and Telegraph Companyas AT&T Broadband
Founded1998;26 years ago(1998)
Headquarters
United States
ParentComcast Corporation

Comcast MO Group, Inc.(formerlyMediaOne Group, Inc.) was created by US WEST Inc., one of the original Baby BellsRegional Bell Operating Companies,acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable and combined with its previously acquired Atlanta-based Wometco/GTC. Wometco/GTC adopted the MediaOne name a year earlier. Media One Group was acquired in 2000 byAT&T Broadband,which was subsequently acquired byComcastin 2002.

History

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U S WEST Inc. was a regional holding company formed from the combination of threeBell Operating Companies:TheMountain States Telephone and TelegraphCompany (orMountain Bell,based inDenver,Colorado);Northwestern Bell,based inOmaha, Nebraska;andPacific Northwest Bell,based inSeattle,Washington. U S WEST Inc. also operated BetaWest, U S WEST International, as well as a directory publishing company,LANDMARK Publishing,renamed US WEST Direct and finally U S WEST Dex. On January 1, 1991, Northwestern Bell and Pacific Northwest Bell were legally merged into Mountain Bell and renamedUS WEST Communications, Inc.US WEST was the first RBOC to consolidate itsBell Operating Companies(followed by other wasBellSouth).

Expansion into cable

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U S WEST Media Group logo, 1995–1998

In order to segregate its regulatedtelephone servicefrom its unregulatedcable TVbusinesses, US WEST Inc separated their assets and businesses into two groups named US WEST Communications Group and US WEST Media Group and issued separate tracking shares for each company. These tracking shares reflected results and prospects of the group's business, and would be traded separately. The Media Group's ticker symbol was "UMG"while Communications group continued with the"USW"ticker.

In 1995, the cable modem service was later renamed to MediaOne Express. The company completed a co-branding deal withTime Warner's cable modem Internet business under which MediaOne would becomeMediaOne RoadRunner.

Acquisitions

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In 1996,U S WESTacquiredContinental Cablevisionfor $5.3 billion in stock and renamed itMediaOne(initially namedMedia1).Amos B. Hostetter, Jr.,a founder and former chairman and CEO of Continental resigned after U S WEST moved the company's headquarters fromBoston, Massachusetts.[1]

In time the service also included pay-per-view, and a self-branded high-speedcable modeminternet service named Hiway1 (Highway One). Hiway1 was an early provider of the cable modem technology.[2]Most early-period modems for the service were created by the manufacturer LANcity (Bay Networks).

Name change

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In 1998, US WEST Inc spun off its telephone and non-telephone assets into two separate companies.US WEST, Inc.,later changing its name to MediaOne Group, Inc. andU S WEST CommunicationsandU S WEST Dexdivisions to a new entity incorporated inDelawarenamedUS WEST, Inc.The "new" US WEST was then spun off to shareholders of Communications Group stock. The split became effective June 12, 1998.[3]Chuck LillisbecameCEOof MediaOne Group.

Acquisition by AT&T

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In 1999,Comcastfirst made a bid for MediaOne. Comcast said they would pay $60 billion and assume all of MediaOne's debt.[4][5]On May 6, 1999, AT&T, not wanting to be outdone promised about $62 billion instead, and paid a break up fee of $1.5 billion allowing MediaOne to be purchased byAT&T.

MediaOne RoadRunner et al. next became AT&T branded. The portion which ran television was "AT&T Cable Television", another part for Internet became known as "AT&T BroadbandInternet "and the third became" AT&T Digital Phone ". The buyout of MediaOne by AT&T happened close on the heels of AT&T's other cable company purchaseTCI.That buyout by TCI already made AT&T the largest cable company, and MediaOne only served to increase their margin of leadership.

In the summer of 2000, AT&T Broadband purchased the cable television system serving the city ofBoston,then controlled by New York-basedCablevision,for $1.1 billion in stock, cash and a trade of other cable systems. The deal effectively made the Boston/New England region MediaOne's largest clustered market. In exchange for the Boston system, Cablevision also received several of AT&T Broadband's systems which served suburban New York communities.[6]

AT&T was unable to make the merger work for many reasons, and split the company into three separate companies:AT&T Corp.continued and retained its long-distance business,AT&T Wireless Serviceswas spun off as a public company, andAT&T Broadbandwas purchased byComcast.At this point, MediaOne became known asComcast MO Group, Inc.

Criticisms

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US WEST, as a telephone service provider, was accused by critics[who?]of failing to meet service needs within a reasonable time frame and of practicing predatory billing and collection methods. While the company often claimed that subscriber demands were often greater than their ability to fulfill orders, many critics pointed to high profit margins, spending on bring-to-market technology and lackluster investment in customer support.

US WEST went through a period of union-management relations that bordered on positive during the early 1990s. After a failed re-engineering strategy, relations fell apart due to increasing hostility between company leaders and employees. When the company rolled out its new slogan – "Life's better here" – employees began wearing buttons and shirts that stated that "Life's Bitter Here".[citation needed]

The company was fined multiple times by the State ofOregonfor these practices during the 1990s. US WEST was also, at several times, involved in smaller litigation with other states within its service area for similar complaints from customers.

Qwest,MCI,and smallercompetitive local exchange carriers(CLECs) who had recently been allowed to offer local service within US WEST's service area (as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996) complained to theFederal Communications Commission(FCC) that U S WEST was uncooperative in releasing their formerly owned lines to these new companies. These types of complaints landed US WEST in court yet again, offering the complex question of whether or not the government could legally offer the sale of owned property to other companies in the event ofderegulation.

In 1996, reports appearing inThe Denver Postand theRocky Mountain Newsrevealed that CLECs had lodged complaints with the FCC against US WEST, including multiple complaints fromQwest Communications International, Inc.The complaints alleged US WEST neglected or seriously delayed release of "bundled loops" as required by theTelecommunications Act of 1996,making it difficult for competitors to provide local telephone service to their customers. Other competitors began following suit, and charged US WEST with monopoly-like or anti-trust type behavior.[citation needed]

Many customers criticized AT&T over the transitioning from Me điểu ne.net to attbroadband and subsequently attbi email addresses.[7][8]A final subsequent change from attbi to Comcast.net also drew further criticism from the company's longest customers who may have gone through the several prior email changes.[9][10]

Markets

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The main markets & regions for MediaOne were:[11]

Besides theUnited States,MediaOne Group also had several smaller business operations in headed by CEO Ron Timmons:

Almost all of MediaOne's international holdings were sold off to satisfy regulators for the merger with AT&T.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Variety Staff (6 October 1997)."Media One exec team to relocate".Variety.Retrieved11 March2011.
  2. ^Due to the early adoption of the technology, customers could not yet have access to anybi-directionalcommunication via the cable modem. Hiway1's cable company's infrastructure was incapable of two-way communication. The customer would only be able to use the Hiway1's cable modem fordownlinkand a regular in-home modem (presumably over thetelephoneline) foruplinkcommunication.
  3. ^"U S WEST 1999 Annual Report"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2011-11-11.Retrieved2013-03-13.
  4. ^Grice, Corey (3 May 1999)."MediaOne-AT&T deal pushes Comcast aside".CNET News.Retrieved11 March2011.
  5. ^Borland, John; Grice, Corey (23 April 1999)."AT&T makes surprise bid for MediaOne".CNET News.Archived fromthe originalon 11 July 2012.Retrieved11 March2011.
  6. ^"AT&T, Cablevision Swap".Warren Publishing, Inc. 2000.Retrieved10 April2012.
  7. ^[Me điểu ne.net domain name change: A warning]
  8. ^Howe, Peter J."Some At&T Users Face E-Mail Shift".Highbeam. Archived fromthe originalon 2016-01-21.Retrieved2013-03-13.
  9. ^Janesfolkart (1 comment )."Comcast: AT&T transition steady so far".News.cnet.Retrieved2013-03-13.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^"Theirs is not Your Domain Name".Thehotiron. 2007-02-17.Retrieved2013-03-13.
  11. ^"This is Broadband. This is the way".2000-03-04. Archived fromthe originalon September 4, 2012.Retrieved2013-03-13.
  12. ^AT&T Absorbs MediaOne Labs After Deal Closes[dead link]

Further reading

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  • MediaOne(archived company website from 1999)
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