Cable: ATT&T is in compliance

Contrary to your article, "Oak Harbor TV gets poor ratings," AT&T Broadband is in compliance with its Oak Harbor cable television franchise. We did not consult with the city of Oak Harbor prior to our merger with Comcast, because the city's cable television franchise did not require us to do so.

The article also failed to mention the improvements AT&T Broadband made in 2002. We added 300 new customer service representatives to our call centers in Washington state to ensure calls are answered faster. During the last year, we launched more than 20 new cable television channels in Oak Harbor, including The Weather Channel, Food Network, Style, The National Geographic Channel, Biography Channel and Toon Disney.

We expect to invest $300 million in Washington state over the next two years to make high-speed Internet access available to all customers. This is a remarkable achievement given the current state of the economy.

We intend to start preparations for our high-speed Internet service in Oak Harbor in 2003, with the intention of making the service available to customers beginning in 2004.

Like any business, we spend our hard-earned capital in places that give us the best return on our investment. That means installing fiber optics in cities where we not only can win new customers, but where we can build sound partnerships with the cities we serve. We believe Oak Harbor fulfills both those criteria.

We're proud to serve our customers in Oak Harbor and look forward to providing new products and services in the future.

Stephen M. Kipp

Executive Director of Communications

AT&T Broadband

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