from the what-happened-to-the-$billions-you-already-got? dept.
AT&T hopes you'll forget its years-long fight against accurate broadband maps;:
AT&T CEO John Stankey this week published an opinion piece in Politico with the apparent goals of improving AT&T's reputation, reducing government regulation, and getting more federal funding. The piece is titled, "A Game Plan to—Finally—Connect Every American to Broadband," and the first item on AT&T's game plan is "to identify where broadband is unavailable with geographic precision."
[...] Why doesn't the United States already have broadband maps with this level of precision? Partly because AT&T and other ISPs have repeatedly fought the Federal Communications Commission's attempts to require submission of more accurate maps.
AT&T may have recognized that its fight against more accurate broadband maps is largely over, with Stankey's Politico essay noting Congress' passage of the Broadband DATA Act—and urging Congress to hurry up in appropriating funding. But even with the Broadband DATA Act mentioned by Stankey, AT&T is still pushing for limits on how the FCC implements the data-collection system mandated by Congress.
[...] The FCC, which is still finalizing its plan, has good reason to ask for more data to verify carrier submissions. In April, AT&T admitted a mistake in which it falsely reported offering broadband in nearly 3,600 census blocks spread across parts of 20 states. Separately, the FCC found in December that Verizon, T-Mobile, and US Cellular exaggerated their 4G coverage in official filings. These types of mistakes can prevent the FCC from targeting funding to the areas where it's most needed, and inaccurate data in general can result in ISPs giving potential customers false information about service availability.
[...] AT&T's targeting of the most profitable areas has left millions of homes in its 21-state service area without adequate broadband access. AT&T doesn't want to bring fiber to all those homes that still have copper phone lines, and Stankey thus urged Congress to appropriate broadband funding that would allow fixed wireless access instead of fiber in unserved rural areas.
[...] Consumer advocates agree that government should promote broadband deployment, but they propose something more ambitious than AT&T's call for more funding and less regulation. Noting that big ISPs "fail to deliver universal access but enjoy comfortable monopolies and charge you prices at 200 percent to 300 percent above competitive rates," Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon recently wrote in support of a nationwide fiber plan proposed by Democrats:
Even when it is profitable to deliver fiber, the national ISPs have chosen not to do it in exchange for short-term profits. A massive infrastructure program, the kind that helped countries like South Korea become global leaders in broadband, aren't just desperately needed in the United States, it is a requirement. No other country on planet Earth has made progress in delivering universal fiber without an infrastructure policy of this type.
Back in the early 1930s, it was recognized that though many cities had electricity, the vast majority of rural homes were not. The Rural Electrification Act (REA) was enacted to address this shortcoming...
Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn was a major proponent of the REA, which he helped pass in 1936 as Chairman of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee. He proudly stated in 1959 that ninety percent of farm homes in the U.S. were electrified, compared to three percent in the early 1930s.
How fast and how expensive is your internet connection?
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday September 13 2020, @02:14PM (2 children)
To your grand children when you are safely dead to remember.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PJcABbtvtA [youtube.com]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @12:43AM (1 child)
I have no children and I plan to have no children. So I won't have any grandchildren.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday September 14 2020, @02:14AM
So am I.
I can even safely say I will not as it is well too late. Some poor girl might have one of my own, but it's definitely not my responsibility.
I did contribute into saving the planet way more than most.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by legont on Sunday September 13 2020, @02:24PM (3 children)
Started by Lenin February 21st, 1920. Implemented roughly by 1935 when the US finally noticed that every Russian has electricity while only city dwellers in America enjoyed an ability to work 24x7. Back to the future, I pay $70 for spotty broadband, while Russians have it for $7 rock solid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOELRO_plan [wikipedia.org]
Electricity was a great tool to force more work on us. Internet in every corner will as well. We'll not find a place to escape. Thin foils will not work either.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:15PM (2 children)
What about thick foils?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday September 14 2020, @01:45AM
That's you removing the last chance to succeed for our BLM challenged folks.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Monday September 14 2020, @06:31PM
Are you referring to the epee?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 13 2020, @02:37PM
One of the primary reasons I never even considered getting an iPhone (and there are many) was their exclusive arrangement with AT&T. Not only are exclusive arrangements bad, but with AT&T, really? WTF,were they preselecting their customers to ensure that they are people who love abuse?
Early cell phone days my wife had an AT&T phone, in Miami - reasonably high density area - but calls would only connect about half the time and would drop within 30 seconds of connection most of the time they did connect. But, somehow, AT&T would bill for 5, 10, sometimes 30 minute calls that did not happen... It's a great business when you have customers that don't care how much it costs or how useless it is, as long as it makes you look rich.
AT&T tried, three times, sending direct sales people to my home in person - all three times I told them: "Nothing against you personally, quit AT&T and come back representing another company and I'll listen to your pitch, but as AT&T reps you are wasting your time and mine - you will NEVER sell me any AT&T product, not even if you're giving me $500 cash to sign up." By the time the third set came around I asked them "didn't your manager tell you what you're walking into here? You really should have a talk with them, and get off my property immediately."
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 13 2020, @02:45PM (1 child)
oh yeah!
wait.... what was I supposed to forget?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:15PM
I see you have your remembrall.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @02:55PM
One hopes they knew full well what they were doing. The alternative is incompetent governance which is a much bigger my bad. The mistake seems kind of like a bank robber who made a mistake by robbing a bank after his lawers said it was ok?
I was thinking about AT&T last night in conjunction with other once great companies tha forgot that making happy customers was what made them great. Last night's list was IBM, AT&T, big three auto, and after yesterday's NASA news, sadly Boeing.
I wonder if Google is next on the list? Don't be evil and do great stuff is what made them great. Now their search function is in the way about as much as it is a help. Wonder if there is a secret switch to make it like the make a happy customer Google?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Revek on Sunday September 13 2020, @03:33PM (3 children)
AT&T straight up lied about their broadband maps. They counted dial up customers as broadband customers. This isn't my opinion. We asked people who showed they were covered by AT&T to call and had them recorded. When confronted they quickly ended the call. Nothing was done about it even after it was sent in to the FCC and the local public services commission.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:58PM (2 children)
Yeah, but you see they now apologized, so now you can trust them completely that they won't abuse the rural broadband funds again. They're trustworthy now, see? See? Trustworthy, they say. Give them more money, because why should they fund it out of their own pocket from what they've already been paid?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Monday September 14 2020, @05:49PM (1 child)
Ajit Pai says everything is cool.
What, you think we can't trust anything the Trump admin says?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:48PM
Want +1 Tragedy mod! ;)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 13 2020, @03:42PM (1 child)
It's not just AT&T. I don't even know if AT&T was the worst. Every carrier in the nation was doing the same thing. We've discussed this subject often on SN. Census blocks were never the "right way" to determine service. And even if census blocks were the "right way", the method was abused horribly. If one customer in a census block had "broadband", or even if that one customer could be shown to have decent service in good weather, the entire census block was counted as having service.
The telcos have criminally defrauded the American taxpayer, as well as the government. It's really that simple.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:55PM
Not simple at all. Fraud at this scale is power brokering. Most of Congress knows they're being lied to, and that's a token they can exchange to get things they want from AT&T.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @05:47PM (3 children)
They want you to forget about them splicing into the internet for the NSA in California and then getting retroactive immunity for telcos passed. The CEOs need to get shot in the face in front of their kids when this type of shit happens.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @07:38PM (2 children)
While I'm certainly in favor of punishing those who defraud and/or betray the public good, I don't understand why you'd want to traumatize the children of such people.
Or are you one of those who would "visit the sins of the fathers" onto their children?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @09:53PM
John Brown said it best. "Nits grow up to be lice".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @07:48PM
i was thinking about the effect it has on other CEOs to know that they may get shot in front of their peers or family while they're out trying to act like an upstanding human being . Also, there is some truth to the other response, but i usually reserve that attitude for piglets.
(Score: 1) by hopdevil on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:25PM
He is after more customers for other AT&T businesses, and will get someone else to pay for the infrastructure to get them. It was cost prohibitive to provide rural America decent bandwidth, but now there is money to be made with á la carte services. Admitting to lying doesn't really do anything to an already tarnished reputation. It's good to be on top.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:34PM
Just provide accurate broadband maps, and allocate the resources to keep them accurate. That'll start the statute of limitations on everyone forgetting, and lapses will restart the clock. That was easy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @12:52AM
If they dipped into public funds to provide service.
Then didn't provide it.
Then cooked the reports.
Does the taxpayer get a refund with lots of zeros?
Holding your breath not recommended.
(Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Monday September 14 2020, @11:45AM
I'm already seeing "Nation-wide 5G coverage!!!" claims from "Lily" [wikipedia.org].