Milwaukee Sues AT&T Over U-verse

-- Multichannel News, 12/21/2006 4:45:00 PM

The city of Milwaukee filed a federal lawsuit against AT&T Wednesday seeking to force the telco to negotiate a cable-franchise agreement for its U-verse TV Internet-protocol-TV service, AP reported.

The city wants AT&T to make the same annual payment incumbent cable operator Time Warner Cable makes under terms of its franchise, according to AP.

AT&T countered that its IPTV service is not a cable-TV system as defined under federal law, AP reported.

Milwaukee city attorney Grant Langley told AP the city is in talks with AT&T on an interim agreement that would let the company "continue to build and operate" its system, adding that he is “taking into account the agreement we have with Time Warner when we're negotiating the points of an agreement with AT&T.”