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AT&T, Apple Can't Win Fight Against VoIP

Hmm - the taxpayers DID subsidize the internet infrastructure, if you recall ..

www.tispa.org/node/14

$200 Billion Broadband Scandal, by Bruce Kushnick
...
Broadband Scandals is a well-documented expose, 406 pages and 528 footnotes. Using the phone companies' own words (and well as other sources), the book outlines a massive nationwide scandal that affects every aspect of state of the Internet. Not only the web but broadband, municipalities laying fiber or building wifi networks, not to mention related issues such as such as VOIP, cable services, the cost of local phone service, net neutrality, the new digital divide, and even America's economic growth.

The fiber optic infrastructure you paid for was never delivered.

Starting in the early 1990's, with a push from the Clinton-Gore Administration's "Information Superhighway", every Bell company - SBC, Verizon, BellSouth and Qwest - made commitments to rewire America, state by state. Fiber optic wires would replace the 100-year old copper wiring. The push caused techno-frenzy of major proportions. By 2006, 86 million households should have had a service capable of 45 Mbps in both directions, (to and from the customer) could handle over 500 channels of high quality video and be deployed in rural, urban and suburban areas equally. And these networks were open to ALL competition.

In order to pay for these upgrades, in state after state, the public service commissions and state legislatures acquiesced to the Bells' promises by removing the constraints on the Bells' profits as well as gave other financial perks. They were able to print money - billions of dollars per state - all collected in the form of higher phone rates and tax perks. (Note: each state is different.)

* ADSL is not what was promised and paid for. It goes over the old copper wiring, can't achieve the speed, has problems in rural areas and is mostly one-way.

* 0% of the Bell companies' customers have 45 Mbps residential services.

Harms and Outcomes
This investigative book isn't just a history, but a warning - the Bell companies can not be trusted with our digital future. Worse, what they have done has resulted in serious repercussions to local, state and national economy.

* The public subsidies for infrastructure were pocketed. The phone companies collected over $200 billion in higher phone rates and tax perks, about $2000 per household.

* The World is Laughing at US. Korea and Japan have 100 Mbps services as standard, and America could have been Number One had the phone companies actually delivered. Instead, we are 16th in broadband and falling in technology dominance.

* Harm to the economy. Five trillion dollars was lost because new technologies and services that America would have developed, happened in Korea. Municipalities around America are waking up to the fact that the phone companies failed to deliver and are now doing Wifi and fiber-based work-arounds.

Broadband Scandals delivers serious revelations. In fact, the book has been designed as the data source for Teletruth's complaint to the FTC against SBC and Verizon.

* The promised networks couldn't be built in 1993 and state laws were changed based on "deceptive speech". The technology today still has problems delivering 500 channels.

* The phone companies pulled a bait and switch. In order to offer DSL over copper, it was not necessary to have state regulation changed. Their plan was to get rid of regulations and enter long distance.

* The Bell mergers resulted in the death of the state plans for fiber optic broadband. Over 26 states had fiber optic projects closed when the mergers of SBC and Verizon were completed. That affected almost 80% of all phone customers in the US.



On Aug 02 10:35 AM daniel3582 wrote:

> Am I missing something here? Didn't AT&T spend years and years
> and tens of billions of dollars to build a wireless network from
> the ground up? What right does Google or the US government have to
> come in and tell them what to do with it?
>
> I'm really searching for a good answer here... feedback appreciated.