Will They Drain the Toxic FCC Swamp?

Summary

America has a new president, and the FCC will change hands to a new Democrat FCC. But, do they have the moxie to drain the current Republican toxic dump and fix what’s broken, or will AT&T, Verizon & the cablecos take over the FCC again?

Please Sir May I have Another? (CLICK FOR FULL STORY)

We are the Diss-Connected.

• Prices in the US are 5–20 times more for wireless or the Triple Play than overseas.
• Made-up Taxes, Fees and Surcharges are all over the bills.
• Advertising, like the word ‘unlimited’, is deceptive, and no one can get service at the advertised price; it leaves out the made-up surcharges. …

14 Critical Points to Take Back Our Networks.

CLICK FOR PART I: Please Sir May I have Another? How many things are wrong with America’s communications thanks to the current FCC policies?

This is Part II: 14 Critical Points to Take Back Our Networks.

GOAL: Through State and Federal Actions, (though it varies by state), fix the Digital Divide by halting billions of dollars in cross-subsidies per state to wireless and the other businesses, then use these funds to return the state utilities to serve the public, bringing high speed fiber optic networks to all areas, at affordable rates, with Universal Service obligations — and opening them to all forms of competition.

IMPORTANT: This plan does not rely on government funding but on accountability, enforcement of laws, accurate data, and going after the improper, if not illegal financial cross-subsidies uncovered by the Irregulators. …

It is Time for a ‘Clean Sweep’ Agenda to Fix the FCC and the Digital Divide.

THIS IS PART 1 — How many things are wrong with America’s communications thanks to the current FCC policies?

CLICK FOR PART II: Enough. Time for a ‘Clean Sweep’ Agenda. 14 critical next steps America needs to take to Take Back Our Networks.

The graphic above is the First Clean Sweep Action America Must Take — Now.

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Please Sir May I have Another?

It is post-election, November 2020. …

What caused the Digital Divide? In state after state, AT&T, Verizon and Centurylink, which are three holding companies that control most of the state-based telecommunications public utilities in America, all made statements and commitments to do upgrades of this critical infrastructure by replacing the existing copper wire with a fiber optic wire. And though it varies by state, in almost all states, laws were changed to give the incumbent state utility — and thus the holding company, more money to build out these ‘new networks’, starting in the 1990’s.

These maps, created using BroadbandNow’s maps and data, and other sources, gives a disturbing picture of what happened in 7 states pertaining to fiber optic deployments. Most of the state is not supposed to be empty. …

This summary is a road-map to repair the dirt road, known as the Digital Divide, in every city and state. We were promised a supercar on the Information Superhighway and we ended up with a broken skateboard on a dirt road.

Introduction

NOTE: This is a summary of the Reply Comments filed by the IRREGULATORS.

In order to solve the Digital Divide by upgrading all of California to broadband capable of 100mbps download speed at affordable prices, as proposed by Governor Newsom, the State must address certain fundamental issues.

While we applaud comments from Electronic Frontier Foundation and others, our reply lays out a critical new path that focuses on halting billions of dollars in cross-subsidies, from AT&T’s state-based public telecommunications utility, AT&T California, and the AT&T subsidiaries. This overcharging should be immediately redirected to fund the deployment of very high speed fiber optic services to all citizens of California at affordable rates — and solve the Digital Divide, once and for all time. …

On Oct. 27th, 2020, the FCC will hold a meeting to vote on a series of agenda items with the intent to fulfill the goals listed in the headline above. We present 7 charts and excerpts to refute all of these actions with evidence, demonstrating that there are structural flaws in every proceeding. (We will come back the significance of Chart 1 in a moment.)

Chart 1: The FCC is Wrong: Verizon’s Fiber Optic FiOS Networks Are “Title II”.

To say this another way, the FCC’s October Meeting has goals: to finally kill off Net Neutrality, to give more government funding for wireless at very slow speeds and bandwidth caps, even though the telecoms never built out their promised wireline fiber to the premises (FTTP) services, to halt the ability of state and local control by governments and regulators to determine what happens in the public rights of way in their cities, towns and counties, and to continue to increase privatizing the publicly funded wireline networks and block competitors from using these networks. …

AT&T, Verizon and the other wireless carriers, with the help of the FCC, have not only figured out how to keep prices for wireless services ‘hyper-overcharged’ as compared to most of the rest of the world, but it uses deceptive advertising, nomenclature, and the distortion of words to claim that they are offering “unlimited” services.

Rewheel, a telecom research and consulting firm, corroborates that America does not have unlimited wireless service and the term, as used, is confusing and misleading.

They write:

“We were misled by Verizon’s confusing wording that appear to suggest that users of these two plans (Play More Unlimited and Get More Unlimited) could consume unlimited gigabytes in 5G mode. We incorrectly assumed that Verizon’s throttling and de-prioritization monthly gigabyte limits (e.g. …

There has been a long string of hype and holler about bringing high-speed broadband to Mississippi and all of the other states where BellSouth, now AT&T, is the primary telecommunications utility. This flyer from 1994 promises an “On-ramp to the Information Superhighway” and 30,000 new jobs in Mississippi based on a proposed BellSouth-backed Senate bill. I’ll get back to this in a moment.

Note: AT&T merged with BellSouth in 2006.

Fast forward. Ars Technica’s headline from October, 1st, 2020 says it all:

“AT&T took $283 million but didn’t deploy required broadband, Mississippi says. Mississippi asks FCC to investigate AT&T’s ‘pattern of submitting false data’.”

According to a press release by Commissioner Presley of Mississippi Public Service Commission, Northern District, issued September 29th…