Allied Telesis @ Yokota Rocks/Sucks

Site is under new management.  Expect more of the same, but different.  Look forward to communicating with all our loyal readers.

Ex-AAFES official gets three years in prison for taking bribes in South Korea

By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, January 10, 2010

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — Former AAFES official H. Lee Holloway was sentenced Thursday in a Georgia federal court to three years in prison for taking bribes to help Korean telecom firm SSRT keep a lucrative contract selling Internet and phone service to U.S. troops in South Korea. During the sentencing in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ga., District Judge Clay D. Land also fined Holloway $5,000 and ordered him to forfeit $70,000 in proceeds from his involvement in the bribery conspiracy, a U.S. Department of Justice news release said.In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Holloway admitted that even though he knew SSRT — also known as Samsung Rental Company Ltd. — was not providing the promised services to military customers, he “turned a blind eye” to customer complaints once the bribes began flowing, according to court documents.

Holloway, also known as Henry Lee Holloway, pleaded guilty in April to taking at least $70,000 in bribes and to not reporting bribe income to the Internal Revenue Service. The bribes were in the form of cash, stock offerings, entertainment, travel and other items of value, as well as prostitutes, dining and drinking, according to court documents.

The conspiracy ran from 2001 to 2006, according to court records, and centered on a $206 million AAFES contract to provide home Internet and phone services on U.S. military installations in South Korea.

Holloway was Army and Air Force Exchange Service general manager at Osan Air Base from June 2000 to August 2005. He was then AAFES general manager at Fort Benning, Ga., until he resigned in January 2007, during disciplinary proceedings, according to court documents. The South Korean businessman who headed SSRT, Jeong Gi-hwan, was sentenced in November in Dallas federal court to five years in prison and fined $50,000.

The only thing missing from this article is how much AAFES is going to give back to its customers who had to deal with their official ripping them off.

From the Wall Street Journal December 22, 2009.

Apple TV-Service Proposal Gets Some Nibbles

By SAM SCHECHNER And YUKARI IWATANI KANE

 

CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co. are considering participating in Apple Inc.’s plan to offer television subscriptions over the Internet, according to people familiar with the matter, as Apple prepares a potential new competitor to cable and satellite TV.

The proposed service by the maker of iPhones and iPod music players could, in at least some scenarios, offer access to some TV shows from a selection of major U.S. television networks for a monthly fee, according to people familiar with the discussions. Apple is pushing to complete licensing deals and hopes to introduce the service in 2010, some of those people said. It is unclear whether any networks have signed on yet.

Spokespeople for Apple, CBS and Disney declined to comment.

If Apple signs up enough networks to launch a viable service—still a very big if—it could ultimately alter the economics of the television business. The service could undermine the big bundles of channels that cable, satellite and telecommunications companies, including Comcast Corp. and DirecTV Inc., have traditionally sold in packages to subscribers.

Comcast declined to comment. A spokesman for DirecTV said, "It’s difficult to gauge how competitive they will be without seeing the packaging, presentation and execution."

Apple is dipping its toe into the cable subscription model, but still needs to sign up networks, Sam Schechner reports on the News Hub panel.

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• Vote: Can Apple succeed with TV?

The video strategy is part of Apple’s plan to overhaul its iTunes store. The store currently sells downloadable music, video and applications like games, entertainment and productivity tools for its touchscreen devices, like the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple recently bought music-streaming service La La Media Inc. as part of its plan to offer consumers more ways to access and manage their music purchases, according to people familiar with the situation. Similarly, the TV subscription service would be in addition to the way Apple sells individual TV shows.

Apple is revamping iTunes as it finalizes its plans for a tablet device, which is meant to be a multimedia gadget, according to people briefed about the product. The multimedia tablet is expected to be larger than an iPhone but smaller than a laptop computer. People briefed by Apple say the company is aiming to launch it by the end of March.

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Apple is preparing a potential new competitor to cable and satellite TV.

Apple faces an uphill battle assembling a critical mass of TV networks to sign up, a factor that could delay or scuttle a launch. A broad swath of media companies—including News Corp., Viacom Inc., Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting and Discovery Communications Inc.—appear to be opposed to or leaning away from signing on, at least to Apple’s initial proposals, according to people familiar with the matter. It is unclear if NBC Universal, in which Comcast is buying a controlling stake, is interested.

As part of the Apple service, CBS is considering offering programs from both the CBS and CW networks, according to people familiar with the matter. CW, a joint venture between CBS and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., airs shows like "Gossip Girl" and "Vampire Diaries" that are among the most popular purchases, per episode, on the iTunes video and music bazaar.

Disney is considering including programs from its ABC, Disney Channel and ABC Family networks, according to a person familiar with the matter. Disney has in the past been among the first to jump into online video, including on iTunes. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest individual shareholder and sits on the company’s board.

In at least some versions of the proposal, Apple would pay media companies about $2 to $4 a month per subscriber for a broadcast network like CBS or ABC, and about $1 to $2 a month per subscriber for a basic-cable network, people familiar with the proposals said. Those amounts are in some cases much higher than media companies receive from traditional distributors. The question is whether selling fewer networks at higher prices is better business.

Apple’s TV proposal may be changing as the company woos networks, according to people familiar with the matter. An initial version of the proposal had envisioned selling access to advertising-free shows from a bundle of top cable and broadcast networks—the "best of television"—with a consumer price tag of $30 a month, according to people familiar with the talks.

Some media companies say the proposed Apple service could undermine the lucrative business of selling bundles of big and small cable networks to distributors like Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc. That concern is less central to CBS, which owns few cable networks. But for companies with large cable-network portfolios, selling only some of those channels to Apple, even at inflated prices, could cut into revenue.

Some executives are also concerned that the Apple service wouldn’t include advertising, at least in some of Apple’s proposals. U.S. broadcast and cable networks sold $43.4 billion in ads in 2008, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

"You don’t want to shoot a hole in the bucket to create another revenue stream," one media executive said.

It is also unclear how many shows from each network could be made available through the Apple service. Networks’ rights to TV shows online are snarled in a tangle of licenses with the studios that produce them. It is possible some shows produced by outside studios for a network could end up left out of an Apple offering, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Apple’s initial proposals were reported in November by the Web site All Things Digital, which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp.

Even if Apple is able to launch the new service, it faces a good deal of competition. Movie rental company Netflix Inc. is expanding its customer base for its streaming video servicethrough partnerships with consumer electronics manufacturers and videogame console makers such as Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. Video site Hulu, which offers TV shows from several networks over the Web, is also looking at the possibility of launching a subscription service. Hulu, which is owned by News Corp., NBC Universal and Disney, has become the second-most popular destination for online video, after Google Inc.’s YouTube, with 657 million video streams in November, according to Nielsen Co.

Meanwhile, cable companies are rolling out their own services that put cable-TV shows online for existing subscribers, giving them more reasons to keep their subscriptions. Comcast brought out its system nationwide on Dec. 15, offering its subscribers online access to some programs from 27 cable networks. Time Warner Cable and Verizon Communications Inc. are testing similar offerings.

According to Adams Media Research, Internet spending on movies and TV shows is expected to more than double to $1.14 billion in 2010 from $472 million in 2008.

—Sarah McBride and Ethan Smith contributed to this article.

Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com and Yukari Iwatani Kane at yukari.iwatani@wsj.com

As the New Year begins, we will be bringing to a close our tales of woe and dissatisfaction with our telecommunications provider, Allied Telesis here at Yokota Air Base.  After much discussion with my spouse and a number of trusted colleagues, I have decided that the fight for what was promised and what is right for the customers of Yokota has been all for naught.

Years after I started this blog, the numerous stories, hundreds of votes collected, petitions, advertising, FOIA’s, research and more it has become apparent to me that nothing has changed and that it never will because those who are setting the tone do not wish it.  It is sad to know that the blight that was forced upon Yokota by those who “knew what was best” has continued to spread throughout Japan in different forms with alas, the same results.  Members of the Yokota community continue to be raped by high prices and low quality service provided by a company who promised much and has failed to deliver on most.

Yokota Air Base was to be the shining beacon of change within the AAFES newly branded information technology services that was going to be sweeping throughout the world.  There were meetings upon meetings with the base leadership and even opened up to the lowest ranking individual at the base theater where both Allied Telesis official Courtney Grace and AAFES officials stood in front of the masses and spun a story of hope and promise.  Now several years later, much of that has failed to be realized.  Little of what was promised such as digital television, high definition, movies on demand, and more has been achieved and it doubtful that it ever will come to Yokota without considerable pressure from AAFES upon the base itself either to provide support to Allied Telesis regardless of the legality…however veiled.

To our readers out there, we are not stopping the site and will allow it to continue for many years to come. My involvement however has come to an end and must remain so.  It is a promise that I must keep to my spouse and it is time that I focus on other endeavors as the next chapter of my life opens up.  Please realize that no one has pressured me to stop writing either.  It is a personal choice and one I must hold steadfast to.

While I can not say that it was not fun while it lasted, it has been disappointing to see just how the true mechanizations of the system really are.  In the bigger picture of things, it has been an eye opener as to how the politics of what AAFES does on Yokota and other bases influences so much.

To my friends at Allied Telesis:

As you continue to infest Yokota remember this, not everyone is as dumb as you treat them.  Sooner or later you are going to get yours served up on a platter, one way or another.  You can either dance to the tune handed to you and pony up what you promised all those years ago, or you can take the ride upstream without the paddle.  The choice is yours in the end.

Oh, and good luck on that line of BS you squeezed out in Hawaii with the $100K+ request to essentially finish the job you were contracted to do from the get go.  Not exactly a good way to ingratiate yourself with the DoD, the Marine’s, the native Hawaiian groups, nor the good Senator who funded that project.  It is my bet that should you get paid that extra cash it may be the last time you get to do business on that base or perhaps even a Hawaiian government sponsored job for a few years.

I wish everyone a Happy New Years and may you find yourself in good company and in happy spirits.  Thank you to all our loyal fans and here is the big BIRD to all my critics who have still failed to prove me wrong on much aside from an occasional rumor that was published and of course stated as such.  You still have not fixed your 9-1-1 service problem and I hope you get sued and are forced to pay a huge settlement for your total lack of competence.  Maybe all it will take is some Congressional member to take a look at what you have done here to fix the problem.  I have written my Congressman and I am very sure that others eventually will as well.

Thanks again…signing off.

If you have a paranoid side that sometimes wonders who is out there monitoring your internet traffic, have no fear, there is a solution out there for you.

Not a bad deal if you are going to be traveling a bit and are worried about those airport wireless connections or have some other concerns that are non-illegal activity in nature.  3 months of service for roughly $21.  I would say that for me, $7 a month is worth piece of mind.