Today’s Chicago Tribune includes a letter from Matt Polka, President and CEO of the American Cable Association, which represents independent cable operators serving about 8 million customers nationwide. Polka blasts claims made by AT&T in a recent Tribune article addressing AT&T’s video franchise agreement with the city of North Chicago. From Polka’s letter:

“This article highlighted a series of claims that telephone companies have used to justify special video franchising legislation, but it overlooked the most critical issues in this debate. Rather than reduce barriers to entering the video market or reduce consumer prices, the radical legislation telephone companies are seeking would merely help them undermine competition and pad their own pockets. Now AT&T has conceded to Wall Street investors that it will not engage in a price war, and Verizon has said it will not price its video service at a discount. So their claims to dramatically lower consumer video prices are empty promises.”