Broadband Everywhere, a bipartisan organization promoting the broadest deployment of competitive broadband networks and whose membership includes the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, issued a statement countering AT&T Chairman Ed Whitacre’s comments at the TelecomNext show. Whitacre claimed that the RBOCs’ video services “will result in lower prices from cable companies, and that’s something they have not been used to.” His claim, according to the Broadband Everywhere statement, “is a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black. It’s also indicative of the kind of misleading tactics which the Bell monopolies continue to practice. The Bell companies’ efforts to crush competition in the local phone industry hasn’t led to lower prices, as Mr. Whitacre claims. The opposite is true – the average monthly bill in urban areas has actually increased roughly 25% in the last decade and 275% since the federal government broke up Ma Bell in the 1980s.... To make matters even worse, as they lobby for their sweetheart deals in various states with promises of lower cable bills, they’re actually asking for permission to raise phone rates even further.” Click here for the full statement.