MediaOne

MediaOne Group Corporate Logo

U S WEST Media Group logo, 1995-1998

MediaOne was a cable company created by US West in 1995 where the cable service started as a division of US West Media Group.

US West founded MediaOne (originally Media 1), through the combination of GCTV serving Atlanta, Georgia and Dekalb County, Georgia and Wometco Cable's assets in the suburbs of Georgia.

In time the service also included pay-per-view, and a self-branded high-speed cable modem internet service named Hiway1 (Highway One). Hiway1 was an early provider of the cable modem technology.^[1] Most early-period modems for the service were created by the manufacturer LANcity (Bay Networks).

In 1995, the Cable Modem service was later renamed to MediaOne Express. After completion of that deal, the company completed a co-branding deal with Time Warner's cable modem Internet business under which MediaOne would become MediaOne RoadRunner.

Acquisitions and dispositions

MediaOne Group was a media/cable TV company that was formed in 1995 by U S WEST, Inc. In order to segregate its regulated telephone service from its unregulated cable TV businesses, it separated their assets and businesses into two groups named U. S. West Communications Group and U. S. West Media Group and issued to its shareholders separate shares for the Media Group. Although both were part of the same corporation, the shares of each group reflected and tracked the results and prospects of the group's business, and could be traded separately. The Media Group's ticker symbol was "UMG".

In 1996 US West acquired Continental Cablevision for $5.3 billion in stock and renamed it Media One. Amos B. Hostetter, Jr., a founder and former chairman and CEO of Continental resigned after US West moved the company's headquarters from Boston, Massachusetts.^[2]

The Media Group initially held MediaOne, a cable service, and U S WEST Dex, the directory publisher for U S WEST Communications Group.

In 1998, U S WEST split up into two separate companies. U S WEST, Inc. changed its name to MediaOne Group, Inc., put the business of the Communications Group into a new entity named U S WEST, Inc. and spun off its shares to the Communications Group shareholders. The U S WEST Dex publishing division was transferred to the Communications Group prior to the split. Chuck Lillis became CEO of MediaOne Group.

In 1999 Comcast, first made a bid for MediaOne. Comcast said they would pay $60 billion and assume all of MediaOne's debt.^[3][4] On May 6, 1999 AT&T, not wanting to be outdone promised about $62 billion instead, and paid the "breaking up of the MediaOne-Comcast merger agreement" allowing MediaOne to be purchased by AT&T.

MediaOne RoadRunner et al. next became AT&T branded. The portion which ran television was "AT&T Cable Television", another part for Internet became known as "AT&T Broadband Internet" and the third became "AT&T Digital Phone". The buyout of MediaOne by AT&T happened close on the heels of AT&T's other cable company purchase TCI. That buyout by TCI already made AT&T the largest Cable Company, and MediaOne only served to increase their margin of leadership.

In the summer of 2000, AT&T Broadband purchased the Downtown Boston market, then controlled by New York-based Cablevision, for $11.8 billion dollars. The deal upon closure effectively made the Boston/New England region MediaOne's largest clustered market. In exchange for Downtown Boston, CableVision was traded several of AT&T Broadband's upstate New York area markets.

AT&T was unable to make the merger work for many reasons, and split the company into three separate companies: AT&T Wireless was spun off as a public company, AT&T Cable/AT&T Broadband was purchased by Comcast. The regular phone business continued as a public company.

Motto: "This is Broadband. This is the way."

Markets

The main markets & regions for MediaOne were:^[5]

• "MediaOne Atlanta"—Atlanta, Fayetteville (Georgia)
• "MediaOne Chicago"—Chicago market (Illinois)
• "MediaOne Denver"—Denver (Colorado) (Note: While MediaOne was at one point a very large employer in Denver, they never actually sold any services here despite this being the location of MediaOne Labs^[6])
• "MediaOne Florida"—Jacksonville, Miami (Southeast/Southwest Florida)
• "MediaOne Midwest"—Metro Detroit/Ann Arbor, Erie Shore Region of Ohio (Toledo, Port Clinton, Fremont, Sandusky and Cleveland areas) (Michigan, Ohio)
• "MediaOne Minnesota"—Twin Cities (Minnesota)
• "MediaOne New England"—Boston (East/West Massachusetts, New Hampshire)
• "MediaOne West"—Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, Mendota, Stockton (California)

Besides the United States, MediaOne Group also had several smaller business operations in:

• Belgium
• Czech Republic
• Hungary
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Malaysia
• The Netherlands
• Poland
• Russia
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• United Kingdom

Almost all of MediaOne's international holdings were sold-off to satisfy regulators for the merger with AT&T.

See also

• MediaOne Group
• AT&T Broadband

References

1. ^ Due to the early adoption of the technology, customers could not yet have access to any bi-directional communication via the cable modem. Hiway1's cable company's infrastructure was incapable of two-way communication. The customer would only be able to use the Hiway1's cable modem for downlink and a regular in-home modem (presumably over the telephone line) for uplink communication.
2. ^ Variety Staff (6 October 1997). "Media One exec team to relocate". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR111662296.html. Retrieved 11 March 2011. 
3. ^ Grice, Corey (3 May 1999). "MediaOne-AT&T deal pushes Comcast aside". CNET News. http://news.cnet.com/MediaOne-ATT-deal-pushes-Comcast-aside/2100-1033_3-225264.html. Retrieved 11 March 2011. 
4. ^ Borland, John; Grice, Corey (23 April 1999). "AT&T makes surprise bid for MediaOne". CNET News. http://news.com.com/ATT+makes+surprise+bid+for+MediaOne/2100-1033_3-224850.html. Retrieved 11 March 2011. 
5. ^ This is Broadband. This is the way.
6. ^ AT&T Absorbs MediaOne Labs After Deal Closes

External links

• MediaOne (archived company website from 1999)
• Company Profile from 2000
• MediaOne Labs