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.
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Frontier prepares for bankruptcy, regrets failure to install enough fiber:
As Frontier Communications moves closer to an expected bankruptcy filing, the ISP told investors that its troubles stem largely from its failure to invest properly in upgrading DSL to fiber broadband.
The presentation for investors, which is included in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, said that "significant under-investment in fiber deployment and limited enterprise product offerings have created headwinds that the company is repositioning itself to reverse." Much of Frontier's fiber deployment was actually installed by Verizon before Verizon sold some of its operations to Frontier.
About 51 percent of Frontier revenue comes directly from residential consumers, with the rest mostly from wholesale and business customers. Frontier said the residential segment that provides most of its revenue "has the highest monthly churn," meaning that customers are leaving the company in large numbers. DSL-customer losses are expected to increase, Frontier said.
[...] In addition to not deploying enough fiber, Frontier has done a poor job maintaining its copper phone and broadband network. Investigations and complaints of chronic outages in New York, Minnesota, Ohio, and West Virginia have helped reveal the ISP's shortcomings.
Frontier’s Inner Secrets Revealed: ‘We Underinvested for Years’:
Communications has revealed to investors what many probably realized long ago — the independent phone company chronically underinvested in network upgrades and repairs for years, giving customers an excuse to switch providers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @07:22AM (2 children)
What's the deal with this outfit? Is it Comcast lite?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @07:47AM (1 child)
CenturyLink is one of the 4 remaining Baby Bell conglomerates. They are mostly in the West, Northwest and North, rural areas in some 30 states IIRC, and provides a huge chunk of Tier 1, enterprise, and data center service.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @02:21PM
I use them because the alternative is Comcast in my area.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @02:04PM (8 children)
The state governments in the states that didn't get the promised expansion should be able to seize the assets of the telecom companies that failed to fulfill the contracts for non-payment just like you can if a company fails to pay after a successful law suit. I'm assuming that the article is saying that an official government body with oversight has ruled the failure is authentic.
Didn't New York State talk about making their own telecom business because of these sorts of failures?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Friday January 24 2020, @02:16PM (6 children)
They should be able to jail the CXXs of these companies for fraud, and claw back the money from either the company or the CXX suite.
Again, it will never happen but....
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday January 24 2020, @02:47PM (5 children)
The got rid of debtor's prisons for a reason. Are you proposing bringing them back?
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday January 24 2020, @03:28PM (4 children)
??? They took money promising to do something with it. They didn't do it. They should either give the money back or go to jail. How is that bringing back debtors prison?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Taxi Dudinous on Friday January 24 2020, @03:38PM
Based on my experience, this is their standard business model.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday January 24 2020, @03:58PM (1 child)
> They should either give the money back or go to jail.
Bankruptcy is the legal instrument whereby a person or organisation can renege on their financial obligations (for example, obligation to complete a contract).
I believe you are proposing an alternative, whereby a person is jailed should they be unable to execute their financial obligations, or (in this case) the obligations of the company over which they have responsibility.
It's okay, but I would like to be clear on the detail of your proposition. Is the idea to jail only (former) company directors? Or those whose salary used to be above a certain margin?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday January 26 2020, @11:23PM
This is where corporate law is in serious need of reform. Currently it appears that the major players in a corporation can pocket the money and leave the corporation in distress, with no recourse for creditors or those that eventually have to foot the bill to clean up the mess.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by toddestan on Saturday January 25 2020, @12:20AM
Personally, I don't they they should be able to get off scott-free by just returning the money as they still reneged on their promises. At the very least there should also be fines, if not some jail time for attempting to defraud those they took the money from.
Though if they do actually have valid reasons for not being able to get it done I'd cut them some slack.
(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.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Friday January 24 2020, @03:31PM (3 children)
I am shocked, SHOCKED, that telecom companies would do such a thing!
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 24 2020, @04:02PM
I'm more shocked that Ajit Pai's FCC doesn't do something about this!
Like give Frontier an aware so as to encourage other ISPs to engage in similar desirable behavior.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday January 24 2020, @04:43PM (1 child)
Isn't this the way Tel-Cos and ISPs are supposed to operate? Seems no matter how well intentioned they start out, they wind up copying the likes of ATT and ComCast.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24 2020, @05:30PM
SONIC in the Bay Area seems to have maintained their principles pretty well, but been a long time since I've checked up on them.
(Score: 2) by YeaWhatevs on Friday January 24 2020, @06:14PM
Predictable results. It's as if this was set up so they wouldn't have to actually deliver.
(Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Friday January 24 2020, @08:38PM
They hounded me for years about money they claimed I owed them. The company had posted charges to a bank account I closed, even though I had phoned in to cancel service, and mailed their equipment back. Their customer retention a-hole wouldn't hear the word "cancel", which I must have repeated five times.