The Emperor Has No Clothes: The State Public Telecom Broadband Utility, Exposed.

  • Local Service — (Line 1, Column F) had revenues of $1 billion for basic phone lines.
  • Nonregulated –(Line 1, Column C) had revenues or $1.1 billion for VOIP, FiOS Video and previously regulatedl
  • Backhaul (Line 1, Column G) has revenues of $1.8 (“Business Data Services” or “Special Access”), Data services used by business or the wires to the cell sites.
  • Total Revenues — (Line 1, Column B), revenues of $3.9 billion.
  • NOTE: Verizon has other lines of business, including Verizon Wireless, Online, etc.
  • Break-out of revenues, with ‘backhaul’ being the largest, at 46%.
  • Local Service (Line 5, Column F), is paying 61%, $833 million dollars.
  • Nonregulated category (Line 5 Column C), is paying only 10%, $140 million. Local Service is paying 566% more than Nonregulated.
  • Local Service should have paid maybe $50-$100 million.
  • These expenses made the entire state utility appear unprofitable, and it was used as an excuse to not upgrade the state; Verizon never brought high-speed broadband competition to the cable companies — which meant continuous rate increases.
  • Dumping of corporate operations expenses into Local Service made the service appear unprofitable, and that was used as an excuse to ‘shut off the copper’ and rate increases
  • Both the extra construction and the corporate expenses created losses, which also saved money on taxes.
  • Phone rates were increased multiple times for ‘massive deployment of fiber optics’ and losses, since 2005. I.e., customers paid for upgrades of the state infrastructure to fiber, but they were charged for the wires to the cell sites.
  • REDIRECTING the subsidies that should not have been allowed, and halting corporate operations and other expenses that have nothing to do with local service, much less New York or even telecommunications … This also increases the taxes paid, and lowers rates.
  • Punchline: We estimate the state utility has been overcharged $1.9 billion in 2020.

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New Networks Institute,Executive Director, & Founding Member, IRREGULATORS; Telecom analyst for 40 years, and I have been playing the piano for 65 years.

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Bruce Kushnick

New Networks Institute,Executive Director, & Founding Member, IRREGULATORS; Telecom analyst for 40 years, and I have been playing the piano for 65 years.