Why is there no Cox cable in Atlanta? (home, to buy)

[demonta4]

Just wondering since there HQ is here, and we need more competition with Comcast and ATT. (Yeah I know, Google Fiber is coming, but only to select areas.)

[PKCorey]

They never had a franchise here and it was probably to expensive to be an overbuilder in our market.

[cwkimbro]

The other problem is AT&T had a large presence in this area and made Atlanta a test market for cable long before they got into U-verse or fiber. One of their first cable systems was one they bought from Comcast in Dekalb.

They then used Atlanta as a test market to aggressively attempt to be an "overbuilder" where two cable companies have cables passing a home and they directly compete.

It is a rather expensive thing to try to do, which is why they are relatively rare.

If there were any markets in Atlanta that were worth overbuilding, AT&T got to them first a long time ago.

[PKCorey]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

One of their first cable systems was one they bought from Comcast in Dekalb.

Any idea what happened to that service?

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by PKCorey

Any idea what happened to that service?

Comcast acquired the company: http://money.cnn.com/2001/12/19/deals/att/

Mediacom also bought several of their markets. Mediacom to buy AT&T cable systems | ITworld AT&T ended up owning the cable system in my hometown for a brief period through a weird series of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, and Mediacom took over our system.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by PKCorey

Any idea what happened to that service?

I'm not sure.

I use to live in an overbuild addition to that service years back. Once they started building U-Verse they couldn't call it U-verse because it wasn't upgraded to their advertised standards for U-verse. It was basically unmentioned, unless you went to their website and put in an address that happened to be on it.

Since then they have rapidly expanded U-verse in the Atlanta area. I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually upgraded those existing lines and got rolled into U-verse, but I don't know.

Sadly most third-party or government maps I know of online are only concerned with broadband (which shows aDSL service too) or they are only concerned with the largest cable provider and it fails to show any overbuilds (which leaves AT&T off the map entirely, even though its an extensive service).

[GRS86]

Originally Posted by PKCorey

They never had a franchise here and it was probably to expensive to be an overbuilder in our market.

It was an ownership issue. Since Cox already owned WSB AM, WSB FM (plus several other radio stations), Channel 2, and of course, the AJC, the government felt that by allowing them to own a cable system in this market would be a case of concentrating too much media control under one company!!!

[Newsboy]

The reason there is no Cox Cable in Atlanta is because they also own the city's largest newspaper, television and radio stations and federal anti-trust (non compete) laws FORBID IT.

(How Cox has been able to maintain ownership of both the AJC and WSB radio / TV all these years is pretty amazing.)

I'm really surprised more people on this site don't understand how the FCC operates.

[PKCorey]

Originally Posted by magnetar

Comcast acquired the company: Comcast wins AT&T Broadband - Dec. 19, 2001

Mediacom also bought several of their markets. Mediacom to buy AT&T cable systems | ITworld AT&T ended up owning the cable system in my hometown for a brief period through a weird series of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, and Mediacom took over our system.

Thanks.

Sold it and they still built their service back up again

It was an ownership issue. Since Cox already owned WSB AM, WSB FM (plus several other radio stations), Channel 2, and of course, the AJC, the government felt that by allowing them to own a cable system in this market would be a case of concentrating too much media control under one company!!!

Forgot about that rule.

Interesting that FCC enforces here but allows corporations like Sinclair to get around it with LMA and other schemes. Baltimore has 6 full power stations and Sinclair controls 3 via LMA (FOX, MyTV and CW).

Sadly most third-party or government maps I know of online are only concerned with broadband (which shows aDSL service too) or they are only concerned with the largest cable provider and it fails to show any overbuilds (which leaves AT&T off the map entirely, even though its an extensive service).

I wish, it was easy to find the areas that AT&T provide U-Verse service online in the metro area.


For the Atlanta old timers, who were the previous cable companies? United Artists, TCI or Comcast?

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by PKCorey

Thanks.

Sold it and they still built their service back up again



Forgot about that rule.

Interesting that FCC enforces here but allows corporations like Sinclair to get around it with LMA and other schemes. Baltimore has 6 full power stations and Sinclair controls 3 via LMA (FOX, MyTV and CW).



I wish, it was easy to find the areas that AT&T provide U-Verse service online in the metro area.


For the Atlanta old timers, who were the previous cable companies? United Artists, TCI or Comcast?

They changed so many times in the City it's hard to remember. I know that AT&T and Comcast each came into and out of the picture several times, but Cox never did.

One thing I miss is that one of them used to have a channel with nothing but arriving/departing flights and their gates in the 90's. Before smartphones, it was great.