New submitter mirandakatz writes: AT&T’s proposed merger with Time Warner is evidence that AT&T doesn’t ever plan to invest in fiber to the home, writes Susan Crawford at Backchannel — and that’s just one of many reasons the merger is a catastrophic idea. Crawford writes: “It’s hard to think of a single positive thing this merger will accomplish, other than shining a bright light on just how awful the picture is for data transmission in this nation. This deal should be dead on arrival. In fact, AT&T should spare us by dropping the idea now. This merger must not happen.”From the report: Think about it. AT&T sells wires to about 51 million homes, far more than any other telephone or cable company in the country. Because of its large presence in many markets, it overlaps with cable companies in many places — AT&T overlaps with Comcast in 45 percent of Comcast’s footprint and with Charter in 52 percent of its footprint. But, after a flurry of debunked press releases, it’s totally clear that AT&T has no real interest in upgrading its copper networks to fiber to the home. Its capital expenditures keep going down, not up. (Would you trust the future to a company that doesn’t see the need to increase investments in its core business, and instead is content to harvest profit from its subscribers?)

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Source: Slashdot – The AT&T-Time Warner Merger Must Be Stopped