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CenturyLink, Frontier Took FCC Cash, Failed to Deploy All Required Broadband:
CenturyLink and Frontier Communications have apparently failed to meet broadband-deployment requirements in numerous states where they are receiving government funding to expand their networks in rural areas.
[...]Under program rules, the ISPs were required to bring Internet access to 80 percent of funded locations by the end of 2019 and must hit 100 percent by the end of 2020. While CenturyLink and Frontier apparently failed to hit the 80 percent requirement in a bunch of states, they could meet the final goal in time if they ramp up construction.
[...]The Connect America Fund, like the FCC's other universal-service programs, is paid for by Americans through fees on their phone bills.
As we wrote Monday, Frontier is reportedly planning to file for bankruptcy within two months.
[...]After reviewing and validating the data, Frontier and CenturyLink are scheduled to provide the FCC with final numbers by March 1.
Both Frontier and CenturyLink have histories of mistreating customers. Frontier's frequent outages and long repair times triggered an investigation and settlement in Minnesota, and New York state officials are also investigating Frontier.
[...]In December, CenturyLink agreed to pay a $6.1 million penalty after Washington state regulators found that the company failed to disclose fees that raised actual prices well above advertised rates. CenturyLink was also forced to stop charging an "Internet Cost Recovery Fee" in the state. The company still faces a class-action lawsuit involving customers from multiple states alleging billing fraud.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Saturday January 25 2020, @03:52AM
You might want to speak to Enron about that... some of this actually hies back to their reaming out Montana Power by tricking 'em into turning from a profitable power company into a speculative fiber-internet company, and selling all their paid-for assets to Enron partners for pennies on the dollar. Rural service might be a lot further along if everyone hadn't gotten thoroughly burned. (I have fiber right across the road, which you can actually see being laid in the MT Power documentary on PBS. Might as well be on Mars.) Anyway CenturyLink (nee Qwest) wound up taking over this region as the then-baby-bell... they used to be rather more horrible; they've actually improved. But yeah, you've gotta keep an eye on their billing. After I complained sufficiently about spotty service, I was offered 2 years at a reduced rate, but only one year materialized on the bill. Since it was an over-the-phone agreement, they're like... contract? what contract??
Anyway, extending service to rural areas is frequently easier said than done. (Most of the area around where I last lived doesn't have landlines, let alone cell service; only way you can get internet is fixed wireless or satellite, and fixed wireless ended at the next ridge. And this was a relatively settled bit of the backbeyond.) Methinks there was a lot of ...optimism... when the reward for being so optimistic was a bonus check from Uncle Sam.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.