PROVING REGULATORY CAPTURE OF THE FCC.

IRREGULATORS RESEARCH MEMO, PART 2: Who Is in Bed with the Corporate-Takeover of the FCC’s Communications and Diversity Council?

TO READ THE FULL PART 2 REPORT (PDF)

CLICK TO READ PART 1

In a cursory examination of the total current roster of the FCC’s communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC) we found that almost 90% of the members have one or more financial ties to the Big Telcos and Big Cablecos and many are being used as part of the corporate marketing and lobbying plan. Worse, the fact that all of the large phone, cable, broadband, internet and wireless providers, as well as their associations, are also on the Council is not a coincidence.

In this, Part 2, we highlight a partial list from the 2023–2024 Council’s member roster of mostly nonprofits, but includes the telecom and cable companies, associations, which are also their corporate funders.

DO THE SEARCH YOURSELF: Simply go to a search engine, type in the ‘name of the organization’ and then type in a few different ‘cable or phone or wireless companies’ we discuss and what you find is decades of financial ties to many of the same nonprofits, etc.

Click for the FCC’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council members, meetings, etc. (This Research Memo started in 2023, so we included some of the previous members as well.)

Part 1 discussed how the overwhelming majority of the members had one or more financial ties to the Big Telecom and Big Cable companies and the work product created shows that the recommendations were all biased towards a goal to give the companies and nonprofits already receiving government subsidies more funding.

There was no call for investigations of why America’s communications prices are 5–10 times more than overseas, no calls for investigations of how these very companies helped to create the Digital Divide by not properly upgrading their networks and worse, customers paid for upgrades that never happened — in every state.

In our previous Research Memo on the Affordable Connectivity Program, we laid out that the FCC never examined how the Digital Divide was created and who was responsible or addressed the fact that overseas prices are a fraction of the US. We put together 4 articles to explain our examination of the FCC’s data presentation. However, we also found a disturbing pattern — the top wireless ACP providers are all “MVNO” resellers of only one of 3 carriers, AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile and Verizon and AT&T. And none mention that these are AT&T and Verizon are holding companies that control but never properly upgraded their state telecommunications public utilities, but used them as a cash machine to fund wireless build outs. Worse, the FCC never mentions that local phone customers were charged extra for upgrades of these utilities to provide broadband over fiber — which mostly never happened, especially in the rural and low-income areas — creating the Digital Divide. — And none of this is history but is currently ongoing and it is one of the largest bait and switch scams in American history.

ALL OF THESE CABLE, WIRELINE AND WIRELESS, TELEPHONE, BROADBAND AND INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS PROVIDERS AND THEIR TRADE ASSOCIATIONS ARE ON THE CEDC.

• Comcast Corporation,
• Charter Communications,
• (Spectrum Wireless)
• Mediacom,
• Verizon,
• (Verizon Wireless)
• AT&T,
• (AT&T Wireless)
• US Telecom,
• National Association of Broadcasters,
• Wireless Infrastructure Assoc,
• Communications Workers of America (union for AT&T et al, including wireless)

Scanning the list, we find that the corporations that are on the Council are the largest wireless companies, the largest cable companies, the largest ISPs and broadband companies, and the largest phone companies. And yet this Council is supposed to “address digital redlining and other barriers that impact equitable access to emerging technology in under and un-served and thus under-connected communities”. Instead, this group represents corporate financial interests and not the Public Interest. And there is no serious discussion of competition or just how unaffordable basic broadband is in America much less a critical analysis.of the role these corporations played in creating the Digital Divide

But, in case you didn’t notice, combined they have control over the entire communications markets in the US, especially when the various partnerships and resale agreements are counted- We believe this concentration of power is called cartel — a bunch of monopolies all playing together without competing but colluding and now funding a new landscape of coin-operated non-profits.

As we discuss, the outcome of this Council was to parrot what the companies want — keep the ACP funding going and let them put in FWA (fixed wireless) rather than the far superior FTTP — fiber to the premises- and get new government subsidies when they already extracted billions from consumers per state to build out the FTTP they promised, and though it varied by state, this happened multiple times in return for rate increases and deregulation.

Collusion of Verizon and the Cablecos for the Provision of Wireless Service.

Comcast, Spectrum, Charter, and Cox are all reselling Verizon’s wireless networks under their own brand name and packaging it with their cable and broadband services for a Quadruple Play Package.

• “Xfinity Mobile is Comcast’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service that rides on Verizon’s network. So essentially, Comcast is piggybacking off Verizon’s 5G network.” May 19, 2020
• “Spectrum Mobile is a competitively priced alternative to more expensive mobile plans because it is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO, using Verizon’s cellular network. Spectrum Mobile offers a variety of 4G LTE and 5G plans with mobile hotspots.” Jun 16, 2023
• “The MVNOs of both Charter and Comcast ride on Verizon’s network. Charter paid over $406 million for 210 priority access licenses (PALs) in the CBRS spectrum …”
• “Cox Mobile will use Verizon’s network as an MVNO while also offloading to its 4 million hotspots. Cable net-adds will continue to grow strongly.”

The Takeover Is Funding a Rainbow of Non-Profits

The nonprofit organizations range from Asian and LGBT groups to historic civil rights groups, black and Hispanic, and even tribal Indian groups. We will go through them slowly, but it is striking that there is no competitive line of demarcation, and groups are receiving funding from all sides — cable, phone, wireless, and broadband connectivity services.

A Collection of the Council Members and the Financial Ties to AT&T et al.

How many groups are on the take? This is not an extensive list but it is clear that the conflicts of interest and lack of ethical standards have stacked the deck — with payola-non-profits.

• Silicon Harlem
• National Urban League
• Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
• Hispanic Heritage Foundation
• Strong Women Alliance
• GLAAD
• US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• Texas Southern University
• Connected Nation
• National Diversity Coalition
• Brookings Institution
• Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council
• ALLanza
• National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc.
• Emma Bowen Foundation

Partial List of Basic Funding Sources for the Non-Profits and Organizations that are on the FCC’s Diversity and Equity Council.

The Trade Associations are Acting as Bag Men(woman, et al.) to Fund the Nonprofits and Organizations Working for the Companies.

This list above is some of the non-profits funded not only by AT&T, but also the CTIA, the wireless association, the NCTA, the cable association, and USTelecom, the phone and broadband association. And the evidence is in the association annual 990 IRS filings. (MyWireless appears to be an astroturf front group that was set up by the companies and is funded via the CTIA, the wireless association, at $1.24 million for just one year.)

Due to the length of this Research Memo, we placed the specifics for each group in the Full Report — Click for PDF.

Coda: How insidious is all of this? This is from a report by the National Urban League written by industry analyst Blair Levin, and others who are not ‘independent’, but have some direct or indirect ties to the companies.

Washington may be about to take a giant step backward in closing the …

The National Urban League proposed a promising alternative in its Lewis Latimer Plan for Digital Equity and Inclusion. (Disclosure: The author of this piece assisted the National Urban League in its development of the Latimer Plan and its analysis of the implications of the ACP on the BEAD program.)The development of the Plan would not have been possible without the generous funding of the following organizations: Alphabet, Amazon, AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, Crown Castle, DISH, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm, Schmidt Futures, Starry, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

How do you create an alternative when those who helped to create the Digital Divide are funding the report to ‘solve the Digital Divide’?

Virtually every other participant in this plan has funding from one or more of the corporations.

Finally, we need to address the 900-pound gorilla in the room. We have a great deal of respect for those advocates who are on the Council and are doing serious important work to help low-income families or their own constituents.

And there are a number of legitimate organizations that do not take corporate funding, or that would impact their work on the Council.

However, we believe it is a direct conflict of interest when a group, is also receiving serious funding from the companies. This should NOT be allowed on an FCC advisory committee, especially when the corporations are on the committee or they are getting multiple funders.

But in this case, it is a pile-on and is dramatically worse because ALL of the phone, cable, wireless broadband internet companies are on the committee as well as their associations and instead of competing they are acting as a cartel with intent to create public policies in favor of the corporations and not the public interest.

No group is going to call for audits or investigations of the companies giving them their funding with the chance it will stop. And no vote will pass because the majority are or work for the companies.

This is a case of ‘Institutional Malfeasance’ — which has been pervasive over decades. This is not simply that the nonprofits and the Big Telecom and Big Cable have taken control — it is a negligent FCC that has failed us. Allowing the companies, their associations and the groups that are getting multiple sources of funding from these same companies, has helped to create this Digital Divide. Congress needs to clean up this mess,

Important: The IRREGULATORS do not take corporate funding.

Punchline: We had a front row seat to this FCC corporate takeover 2 decades ago — and it just got worse.

In 2004–2005, our previous group, Teletruth, was on the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee and we watched as we were blocked from presenting our findings of truth-in-billing violations and customers put on packages they did not order based on thousands of phone, wireless bills, mostly from Verizon. Teletruth also had a telecommunications auditing company, and lawyers working on billing issues — for decades.

We then discovered that almost all of the members of the Committee had a financial tie to the companies, that there were 2 ‘astroturf’ groups, created to represent ‘low income’ and ‘minorities’ or ‘long distance users’ and they, as a group had helped to push through multiple rate increases since 2000.

This is our original complaint from 2005; almost 20 years ago. (Some of the links may not be active.)

And these issues were never addressed. We wrote this analysis of the Consumer Advisory Committee in 2020.

• EXPOSED: The Corrupt Trump FCC: Puppets of Verizon and AT&T.
• PART II: Republican FCC Captured, Corrupted, Consumer Advisory Committee

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AT&T et al has made Digital Diversity and Equity a new revenue and marketing stream.

“At AT&T, we are proud to have collaborated for more than 50 years with a diverse group of businesses and enterprises owned by BIPOC, women, service-disabled veterans, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities. The Supplier Diversity program not only provides an opportunity to a diverse range of business owners but empowers them, in turn, to provide opportunities for others.”

“We are proud of our continued work towards providing economic empowerment opportunities for my community. In honor of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Heritage Month, we would like to acknowledge our more than 90 AAPI suppliers, with whom we have invested $4.6 billion in the past three years alone.”

Do you really empower a community when:

§ The company failed to properly upgrade the original 60–100 year old state telecommunications public utilities’ infrastructure in 21 states?

§ Or the copany adds made up charges on the bills — so that the prices in America are 5–10 times more than overseas?

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THE DETAILS: CLICK TO READ THE FULL REPORT (PDF)

Silicon Harlem

Silicon Harlem Opens First-Of-Its-Kind Digital Learning Lab In Harlem Under An AT&T $2B Commitment, Afrotech, June 23, 2023

“AT&T is committed to empowering youth in New York, NY, through a new initiative. Silicon Harlem has opened a digital learning lab with the support of AT&T and the New York Urban League to help kids learn more about tech careers, according to CBS New York. The first-of-its-kind lab in Harlem, NY, is a part of the major telecommunication company’s $2 billion commitment to the program.

“In addition to its donation, AT&T’s $2 billion commitment includes amplifying the Affordable Connectivity Program, which is a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) benefit program that provides discounts to eligible families to “ensure that households can afford the broadband they need for work, school, healthcare and more,” according to the FCC’s website.

“AT&T has opened four additional digital learning labs across New York over the past year. Additionally, the company aims for further its expansion into more boroughs to provide neighborhoods with free broadband access.”

CLICK TO READ FULL PDF