They are Howling in the Peanut Gallery about AT&T’s Broadband Plans.
READ THE PUBLIC COMMENTS BELOW or here and scroll down.)
On an AT&T policy forum, an Executive Vice President of Federal Regulatory Relations, MARCH 26, 2021, discussed offering Universal Broadband, especially with government subsidies. — And the public chimed in with comments — and they are hysterical — See below.
Since this post was written, in March, 2021, a whopping $65 billion is now being given out to solve the digital divide.
PART 2 COMING: AT&T’s Plan Explained: Government Subsidies for Slow, Expensive, Not-Symmetrical, Not-Fiber, Wireless Services; Block Overbuilding, Screw 21 States
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They Love AT&T… Really. Just Don’t Read the Comments.
I scroll down the policy blog page and there are 73 comments listed. The rest of this article presents the first 9 commentators about AT&T’s policies; click to read the others…. PART 2 IS COMING.
1. XXXXX March 29th, 2021–3:44pm
I live in Wyoming and I have been clamoring for gigabit fiber for years. Fortunately there is a local fiber provider that serves my rural county that will be providing symmetric gigabit to my office in the next two months. $100/mo too.
AT&T is out of touch if they think rural communities don’t need fiber. This is just a city dweller trying to hold rural communities back!
2. XXX March 29th, 2021–4:16pm
You are high on paint fumes from you new shiny office. AT&T’s refusal to acknowledge and be leader in Internet infrastructure and instead remain steadfast in your greedy hording of funds for shareholders stifles your ability think critically. Just give your current and future customers what they demand: broadband Internet connections at market speeds. Not only is this equitable, but necessary in today’s modern Internet-connected society. Shame on you, your industry cohorts, your co-monopolies and your lobbyists. Shame on you. Period. You are just posturing to keep everything the way it is because it benefits YOUR BOTTOM line only. Stop pretending you are defending customers, you are lying and insulting our collective intelligence. Good grief, Starlink can’t come soon enough!
3.XXXXX March 29th, 2021–5:01pm
If the bozos at AT&T were in charge of electricity, gas, and water utilities, folks in rural areas of the country would still be reading by candlelight, heating their homes with fireplaces, and hauling their laundry down to the river.
4. XXXXX March 29th, 2021–5:19pm
Considering AT&T’s reluctance to upgrade most rural areas to even meet the FCC 25/3 broadband definition, I’m not sure what is the concern. AT&T has no interest in spending money to upgrade their legacy infrastructure in any meaningful way for their customers. I look forward to the next article where it is explained why my 24Mbps DSL service has a 1TB cap and costs more than an AT&T symmetrical gigabit fiber connection without a data cap available within a different city in the same state. I have no expectation of AT&T improving service at my home and I live in a town with a population of 40,000+. This post just rings as hollow words to a frustrated customer who is looking forward to the day that LEO satellite internet constellations finally go fully operational.
5. XXXXX March 29th, 2021–6:04pm
Is this an early April Fools joke? Basically you want to make sure that bad decisions you’ve made to keep a monopoly hold on large swathes of the USA aren’t rendered obsolete by technology. Instead the public should continue to pay outrageous monthly fees to protect your monopoly. I can’t believe that an intelligent person could have written something so biased.
6. XXXXX March 29th, 2021–6:59pm
If this isn’t the most archaic & 19th century stance then I don’t know what is. This kind of backwards thinking is why the US is so far behind the rest of developed democratic countries around the world including most of Europe. There is no way that 10 mbps upload speeds will ever keep up with the rest of the world, as time marches on, & what future needs will require. We need to be looking for faster upload speeds as well as download speeds, as we move into the technology future. Anything less is like saying that putting a satellite up to an orbit of 200 miles will always be good enough.
I have had AT&T for quite some time now, and if this is what the future of AT&T looks like, then it is time for us to look into other companies to do business with.
I don’t care if you are looking at rural or urban, 10 mbps is never going to cut it moving forward.
AT&T might want to limit upload speeds if for some reason it would generate more revenue or lesser expense. Bottom line.
7. XXXXX March 29th, 2021–7:06pm
This shows stunning ignorance and an infuriating lack of respect to the people who feed you.
8. XXXXX March 29th, 2021–7:13pm
every one already said it more eloquantly than me … but it is hilarious that someone with vp title at att can think that slow internet is the way forward. we see what you’re doing. you’ve abandonded investemnt in your own slower networks and you want to see the gov’t pick up your lack of initiative and pay you to maintain these customers. we’ve read the stories of how you let dsl plant go into disrepair and sell ever slower service. we see you att. it’s so sad that a so-called vp who probably has the fastest internet at her house thinks rural people don’t ‘need’ fast internet. seriously, hand your vp badge to some internet teen. they are have more up to date ideas on internet standards than you do.
9. XXXXX March 29th, 2021–7:25pm
Let’s forget about all of the potential innovation and opportunity currently being limited by the lack of upload speeds across the country. It’s an embarresment globally that we host a majority of the internet and yet most of the country can’t get more then 10mbps up for <100$ outside of existing fiber offerings. Also what about the proxy infrastructure improvements to be had like upgrading your own wireless offering. Didn’t we already pay for much of your existing infrastructure? I hope the board removes you. I encourage investors to vote with their dollars and pull out.
