Public Policy Update - AT&T Michigan

Dear Friends:

I wanted to provide you with a brief update on a few things we are doing to keep you connected everywhere you live, work and play. To learn more, please click on any of the following titles to be directed to the full articles below.

·         New President of AT&T Michigan Named

·         AT&T Supports Launch of Get Schooled Initiative

·         AT&T Supports Children, Domestic Violence Victims with Donation to SAFE Place

·         AT&T Invests More Than $865 Million to Strengthen Communities

·         Study Reveals Educators’ Views on Dropouts

·         AT&T Supports Adoption of National Broadband Plan

I hope that you enjoy this e-newsletter, and I will continue to update you regularly on the latest news from AT&T Michigan. As always, please let me know whenever I can be of any assistance. I can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Sincerely,

Robert Jones
External Affairs Director — AT&T Michigan

Michigan Update

New President of AT&T Michigan Named

AT&T¹ recently announced that James "Jim" A. Murray would be the new president of AT&T Michigan, where he has served as vice president of government relations since 2005.

In his new role, Murray will oversee regulatory, legislative and external affairs, as well as community and industry relations, throughout the state of Michigan. He will work closely with community leaders, legislators and other policy makers along with business leaders and customers to help meet the company’s objective of connecting people with technology everywhere they live and work across the state.

This is an exciting time to be in our business. We are serving our customers in more ways than any of us could have dreamed of five or 10 years ago. We are leaders in not only landline, but also broadband, wireless and video.

Jim takes on this job at a perfect time. In addition, his work with the Legislature over the years has helped create an environment in Michigan which has allowed us to diversify our products so we can serve our customers in more ways than ever.

Welcome Jim!

I am honored to be named president of AT&T Michigan so that I can continue working to keep our customers connected in new ways and deliver new jobs and investments across our state. I know I have tremendous shoes to fill in this new position, but I am looking forward to working with my colleagues, our customers and our elected officials to keep Michigan connected. — James A. Murray, president, AT&T Michigan 

AT&T Supports Launch of Get Schooled Initiative

Get Schooled is a national platform that connects, inspires and mobilizes people — from policymakers and corporate leaders to communities and kids — to find effective solutions for the problems facing America’s education system. This five-year national high school retention awareness initiative was co-developed by Viacom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AT&T is supporting the program with $1 million through AT&T Aspire, a philanthropic program focused on strengthening student success and workforce readiness.

On Sept. 8, 2009, the kick-off documentary, Get Schooled: You Have the Right, aired commercial-free, simultaneously on all Viacom networks, including Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, BET, CMT, Comedy Central and SPIKE TV.

The 30-minute documentary highlighted the education challenges, life choices and breakthroughs experienced by three professionals — speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz, music director Jason Halbert and marketing executive Latesha Williams — who provide critical support to President Barack Obama, Kelly Clarkson and LeBron James, respectively. President Obama, Clarkson and James were featured in the show alongside their trusted professional colleagues who work behind-the-scenes, but have equally inspiring personal stories and are successes in their own right.

AT&T Michigan hosted a screening party in Detroit at Youthville Detroit for community leaders, educators, students and parents. 

AT&T Supports Children, Domestic Violence Victims with Donation to SAFE Place

The AT&T Foundation, the corporate philanthropy organization of AT&T, recently announced support for SAFE Place shelter in Battle Creek, providing support for families and children who are involved in domestic violence situations.

AT&T was joined by SAFE Place staff and volunteers, along with local and state elected officials at Lakeview Square Mall in Battle Creek, for the presentation during the “Would You Walk a Mile in Her Shoes?” event. 

The AT&T donation of $13,200 was used to help SAFE Place build rooms specifically designed for elementary school-aged children and teens, to help provide them with a sense of normalcy while they are residing at the shelter. Both rooms are filled with age-appropriate artwork, computers, software and other therapy tools. The rooms are also staffed with volunteer mentors and others available to support the children.

With more and more children residing at SAFE Place, it is more important than ever to make sure they have the tools in place to not only receive the necessary counseling, but also to make their lives normal, to the fullest extent possible, while they are here. AT&T and the AT&T Foundation have been incredibly generous with this grant. I thank them and our elected officials for understanding the needs of the children in our community and their willingness to support them. — Jennifer Fopma, executive director of SAFE Place

AT&T Invests More Than $865 Million to Strengthen Communities

AT&T recently released its 2008 Citizenship and Sustainability Report, “Connecting for a Sustainable Future.” The report spotlights more than $865 million in multi-year investments for important education, environmental and volunteerism programs to help strengthen communities, stimulate economic growth and ensure America’s global competitiveness.

Despite a down economy, AT&T accelerated its social and environmental investments over the past year. Key initiatives highlighted in this year’s report include:

·         Education and Workforce Readiness: In 2008, AT&T launched AT&T Aspire, a $100 million multi-year education initiative to help stem the United States high school dropout crisis. The program, one of the largest corporate commitments ever to address high school success and workforce readiness, supports four primary components: grants to schools and nonprofits, dropout prevention summits organized by America’s Promise Alliance, dropout prevention research and a companywide job shadowing program. 

·         Community Volunteerism: In 2008, AT&T employees and retirees volunteered 10.3 million hours of their time, worth more than $200 million, to improve communities where they live and work. For example, during this year’s National Day of Service, AT&T partnered with the Communications Workers of America to support Share Our Strength’s efforts to address childhood hunger by collecting and delivering more than 50,000 pounds of food to local area food banks in 39 metropolitan areas.

·         A Cleaner Fleet: Earlier this year, AT&T announced plans to invest up to $565 million to roll out more than 15,000 alternative-fuel vehicles over the next 10 years. This means removing approximately 211,000 metric tons of emissions from communities where the fleet operates, which is equivalent to removing approximately 38,000 passenger cars from the road for a year.

AT&T invests as few other companies do and is committed to giving back to the communities where we live and work. Between 2006 and 2008, AT&T invested more than $2 billion to enhance its wireless and wired networks in Michigan. We have contributed more than $9.5 million to key initiatives in Michigan beginning in 2008, including five grants, valued at $400,286, through the AT&T Aspire High School Success grant program. We also provided the opportunity for 298 students in Michigan to job shadow our employees, giving them the chance to see first-hand the skills they need for future success. In addition, AT&T Pioneers in Michigan contributed more than 18,000 volunteer hours in 2008 — representing more than $350,000 worth of time.

The investments we make in our people, the network, communities and the environment can bring prosperity, growth and opportunity to workers, families and businesses. Investing in high-tech jobs, faster wireless and wired networks and important education programs will help stimulate both economic and job growth here at home.

We are proud to be a vital part of Michigan, and we invite you to click on the following summary to learn more about our efforts.

National Update

Study Reveals Educators’ Views on Dropouts

A new study, funded by the AT&T Aspire program, found that teachers strongly support school reforms to address the high school dropout crisis, but that they and their students are not receiving the support and resources needed to succeed.

The study, titled “On the Front Lines of Schools,” was conducted by Civic Enterprises and Peter Hart Research with America’s Promise Alliance. The AT&T Aspire program is a $100 million philanthropic program to help strengthen student success and workforce readiness.

The research, which focuses on the educator perspective, follows two other seminal education studies: “The Silent Epidemic,” which focused on the dropout perspective, and “One Dream, Two Realities,” which focused on the parent perspective.

The research identified an “expectations gap” between teachers and students. In “The Silent Epidemic,” two-thirds of dropouts said they would have worked harder if more had been demanded of them in the classroom. However, this latest study revealed that educators did not share that view. In fact, 75 percent of teachers and 66 percent of principals did not believe students at risk of dropping out would have worked harder if more were demanded of them.

Moreover, less than one-third of teachers said they believed “schools should expect all students to meet high academic standards, graduate with the skills to do college level work, and provide extra support to struggling students to help them meet those standards.”

Teachers and principals recognized that most students who fail to graduate were capable of doing so, but failed to complete high school for a variety of reasons — ranging from a lack of support at home and academic preparation to chronic absenteeism and the press of real life events. Most cite the need for more parental involvement and support at home as a core issue.

As you may recall, funding this research was one of the four initial components of the AT&T Aspire program launched in April of 2008. The Aspire program is the largest education initiative in our company’s history, and we are proud of the impact it is having in our state.

So far in Michigan, we have announced $400,286 in direct grants to school districts and nonprofit organizations focused on high school retention and better preparing students for college and/or the workforce. We have partnered with Junior Achievement chapters across Michigan to bring hundreds of high school students to our offices for job shadowing. And finally, we have sponsored and supported America’s Promise dropout summits and activities.

I thought you would find this thoughtful research helpful and wanted to make sure you had access to it.

Press Release, “AT&T Releases New Study Revealing Educators' Views on the Nation's High School Dropout Crisis,” June 4, 2009.

AT&T Supports Adoption of National Broadband Plan

As the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) works to establish a national broadband plan, AT&T believes that every proposal coming before the commission should be filtered through one simple but critical lens: how will it get the United States (U.S.) to 100 percent broadband adoption. That is why we have recommended that the country move aggressively to adopt a national plan to ensure broadband access for all and enable broadband adoption by 100 percent of Americans by 2014. It is the hope that this aggressive goal can also stimulate job creation and economic recovery through infrastructure upgrades. This goal will also help the U.S. achieve important societal goals, including energy independence and better health care delivery.

To do that successfully, the government must promote and balance a few principles. The plan must: be universal, so that it must be available and affordable to customers everywhere; be open and allow consumers to exchange ideas and communicate freely; respect privacy, so that consumers are in control of how, when and by whom their private information is used; and be safe, so that networks and services are protected from harm and consumers are secure when they go online.

A successful national broadband plan should aim for an Internet that is universal, open, private and safe. It should also foster an environment in which all participants in the Internet ecosystem have the incentive to continue the massive investments required to create more bandwidth, compelling content and applications that will make everyone in the United States want to be connected. — Robert Quinn, AT&T’s senior vice president of Federal Regulatory

Over the last decade, communications technology has progressed at a remarkably fast pace. The adoption of broadband technology has skyrocketed from 3 million connections at the end of 1999, to over 121 million connections at the end of 2007. And, the definition of broadband is changing. Broadband was once about a connection at home; now it’s about a connection wherever you need it.

The Internet has the ability to transform our society, our economy and our way of life. That is why we are investing in our broadband networks to deliver speed and mobility to customers, increase capacity and availability and enable new applications and services. Last year, AT&T alone invested more than any other publicly traded company in the United States and more than any other publicly traded global telecommunications company.² Throughout 2009, we expect to invest more than $17 billion, much of which will enhance our mobile broadband network with nearly 2,000 additional cell sites in the U.S. and expand into 20 new markets. Currently, AT&T has the nation's largest Wi-Fi network with more than 20,000 hot spots in the United States and 125,000 hot spots worldwide. We recently completed the world’s largest deployment to date of 40-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) transport, the fastest backbone technology available, which dramatically expands our capacity to handle the ever-growing demand for bandwidth.

For more information on the 100 percent broadband goal and to see an outline of principles AT&T suggested addressing in their FCC filing, please read the press release here. For the complete FCC filing, please click here.