NNPA has direct and long-standing ties to AT&T

Sometimes it’s hard to tell real journalism from industry-backed “dollar-a-holler” hackery, but the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an organization of Black newspaper publishers, went way over the top and made it too easy.

Their “special correspondent” Yaounde Olu wrote a particularly nutty piece of paranoia in an article titled, “Free Press Targets Poor Blacks and Women for Net Neutrality Campaign,” attacking pro-consumer group Free Press for daring to work with the Harmony Institute to undo industry propaganda, astroturf group nonsense, and multi-million dollar corporate lobbying efforts to derail broadband reforms like Net Neutrality.

If this is what passes for “news,” newspapers should reconsider their NNPA membership unless they throw in some free iPhones from AT&T:

In a bid to ensure Net Neutrality, the Free Press has commissioned the Harmony Institute to develop a strategy that will target poor, rural African- Americans in the South and women to increase support for a Net Neutrality (NN) strategy. Net Neutrality is basically the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. In other words, everyone has access, and all platforms, content, and sites are treated equally. The opposite concept is a system wherein there would be limited or possibly “tiered” access. This could impact small businesses and other individuals without the economic wherewithal to access all sites.

According to the Free Press, the core supporters of Net Neutrality are affluent whites, who, have easy access to broadband and understand the issues. Poor, rural African-Americans and women, however, are the demographic that must be influenced in order to build a secure NN support base.

The Harmony Institute, a self-identified nonprofit organization committed to applying behavioral science to communications, in response to the Free Press’ commission, has produced a manual for the purpose of achieving these ends entitled Net Neutrality For the Win: How Entertainment and the Science of Influence Can Save Your Internet. This 40-page document identifies poor, rural African Americans and woman as “persuadable” for Net Neutrality messaging, and lays out very specific strategies for accomplishing their end goal of manipulating this demographic.

[...]Prominent members of the African American community have expressed serious concerns about the strategy laid out in the Free Press document. Shirley Franklin, a former mayor of Atlanta, offered the following observation, “It troubles me that an organization would target women, African-Americans and other minorities on an issue of such importance as universal broadband services without basing their advocacy on access, affordability and relevance.”

Julius Hollis, Chairman and founder of the Alliance for Digital Equality (www.alliancefordigitalequality.org), an organization whose mission is to ensure accessible and affordable broadband to the unders erved and un-served, particularly to communities of color, also weighed in on the issue. He stated, “I am extremely disappointed in the Free Press, not only in its policies and tactics that they are attempting deploy in their strategy paper, but equally disturbing are its attempts to portray the African-American and Latino consumers as expendable in their efforts to promote Net Neutrality. In my opinion, this is going back to the tactics that were used in the Jim Crow era by segregationists. It’s no better than what was used in the Willie Horton playbook by Lee Atwater who, upon his deathbed, asked for forgiveness for using such political behavior tactics.”

[...]Danny J. Bakewell, Sr., Chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), is taking the lead on fighting the Free Press’s NN strategy. He has this to say about it, “… I am outraged. And you should be too. I urge you to get out in your community and tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and tell those you meet at church and other groups about this appalling report. Most importantly, call and email Free Press and tell them you need a broadband connection to your house, not a subliminal message beamed into your subconscious.”

The Alliance for Digital Equality is directly backed by... AT&T

The NNPA and this “reporter” failed Journalism:101.  Let us count the ways:

For NNPA’s reporter, Balance is a nutrition bar, not an objective to strive for in this thinly-disguised hit piece against Free Press.  Last time I checked, Free Press was happy to answer their critics and share their own views on the subjects that concern the telecommunications industry and their specially-funded-friends.  Olu couldn’t find the space for the other side after all those “shame on you Free Press” quotes.

The portrayal of issue positioning and strategic messaging to reach various groups with a pro-Net Neutrality message is hardly an insidious, offensive plot.  In fact, unlike big telecom companies, the pro-Net Neutrality side has released their findings in public.  While the telecom industry marks their astroturfing and corporate lobbying strategies “top secret,” the pro-Net Neutrality side has nothing to hide.

But what would a newspaper association catering to African-American newspapers be doing in the middle of this fight in the first place?  As Stop the Cap! has seen and reported countless times before, when interest groups suddenly take an interest in supporting the telecom industry’s agenda items, telecom money is usually not far behind.

The most shameful part of the original article is the “reporter” couldn’t be bothered to be honest with readers and disclose the fact NNPA, the organization behind the article, has direct close ties to AT&T.  So do all of the quoted sources in the article.  The lack of disclosure is inexcusable, shoddy journalism — ultimately producing  just one more piece of industry propaganda.

“NNPA and AT&T Are Partners”

AT&T’s North Carolina President Cynthia Marshall was NNPA’s special guest at a corporate luncheon held by the group this past February, during their Winter Conference held in Charlotte, N.C.

Pharoh Martin, NNPA National Correspondent, covered the event and noted AT&T had “recently established a partnership with NNPA and the NNPA Foundation.”  Martin noted AT&T’s interest in broadband issues and reform are a top agenda item for the telecommunications company and the company ran an Internet Cafe during the event, exposing visitors to AT&T’s agenda.

The Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch also notes NNPA has maintained strong ties with AT&T.

Shirley Franklin provides "dollar-a-holler" support for big cable and phone companies. (Black Agenda Report produced this montage image)

Shirley Franklin, quoted in the piece, was called a prostitute for AT&T by the Black Agenda Report.  After her stint as Atlanta mayor, she’s been an enthusiastic “dollar-a-holler” supporter for big cable and phone company interests.

Julius Hollis, chairman and founder of the Alliance for Digital Equality might be deeply disappointed with Free Press in his word salad of hyped outrage, but consumers should be even more upset that Hollis, too, is working for AT&T’s interests.  In fact his group is directly supported by AT&T.  Actually, calling the ADE a “group” might be a stretch.

As SourceWatch noted, “According to its 2007 tax return (Form 990), it had an operating budget of over $2 million, of which no money was allocated for fundraising, nor hiring of employees. In fact, the total compensation for board members exceeded the amount of all program-related expenses.”  That means loads of largesse for Hollis and the aforementioned Ms. Franklin, who “seems to be some sort of senior advisor to ADE,” according to the Black Agenda Report.

Mr. Bakewell’s admission that he’s taken a political position in this debate makes the NNPA just another player in the political arena.  They cannot call themselves impartial in this debate, nor should they be writing ostensibly unbiased news reports while also cheerleading AT&T and proclaiming a partnership with the phone giant.

Bakewell’s half-baked notions that AT&T will suddenly provide affordable broadband to most Americans while it continues to raise prices on broadband service (and in some cases limit its use), would simply be dismissed as naive if AT&T’s money wasn’t helping to feed the rhetoric.

The subliminal message beamed into the subconsciousness of NNPA’s readers is the one carefully crafted by AT&T to generate fake outrage and turn a telecommunications debate into another piece of raw meat for racial politics.  Once the puppet strings leading back to AT&T are revealed to readers, the real outrage should be reserved for the NNPA itself, cynically doing the bidding of a phone company and manipulating readers with false scandals and pointless side shows of distraction.

Obtaining universal access to affordable, high quality broadband service is not, nor has it ever been, a racial issue.  It’s an economic issue that has been exacerbated by companies that enjoy their current duopoly status and can afford to keep raising the prices on their customers, regardless of who they are.

Stop the Cap! is a pro-consumer group with no industry ties and no corporate money to hide.  We’re 100 percent consumer backed and consumer supported.  Too bad the NNPA, Ms. Franklin, Mr. Hollis and Mr. Bakewell cannot say that.

AT&T today launched its latest Hotzone Wi-Fi service in Wrigleyville, the neighborhood of restaurants and shops surrounding Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. The new Wi-Fi hotzone provides coverage along the streets and in the outdoor areas of Wrigleyville on the south, east and west sides of the stadium.

The Chicago AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone is the third to be deployed as part of a pilot project to examine using Wi-Fi to supplement AT&T’s mobile broadband coverage in areas with consistently high 3G traffic and mobile data use. The first pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone launched in New York City’s Times Square in May.

“We are excited to introduce an AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in Wrigleyville, on the heels of successful hotzone launches in New York and Charlotte. These pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones give us the opportunity to explore new ways to utilize our Wi-Fi and 3G networks to deliver the best possible experience for our customers,” said Dave Fine, vice president and general manager of AT&T in Illinois.

“We couldn’t be more pleased that AT&T has selected Wrigleyville as one of its three Wi-Fi hotzone locations,” said Jerry Roper, president and CEO of Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. “This is great news for businesses in this vibrant neighborhood, as it offers Chicagoans and visitors yet another reason to experience all that the Wrigleyville area has to offer.”

AT&T's Hotzone surrounds Wrigley Field in Chicago (click to enlarge)

The Hotzone concept is designed to offload traffic away from AT&T’s congested 3G wireless network onto lower cost Wi-Fi service.  The Wi-Fi network is also expected to be faster than AT&T’s 3G network which may help drive AT&T customers towards using it.  There are no additional charges or usage limits for AT&T customers to access the Hotzone.

http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Wrigleyville a Chicago Neighborhood Visitor Guide from Chicago Traveler.flv

Chicago Traveler produced a short video introducing tourists to what’s on offer in Wrigleyville other than AT&T’s Hotzone.  (3 minutes)

Rural upstate New Yorkers can now obtain far faster broadband service as Time Warner Cable continues to expand DOCSIS 3 speed upgrades everywhere in New York… except Rochester.

Time Warner’s “Wideband” Internet service offering up to 50/5Mbps service became available this week for the 11,000 residents of Oneida, who have joined cities as large as New York and as small as Utica and Watertown in getting the cable company’s fastest possible broadband speeds.

Ironically, the most significant city in New York still off the upgrade list is Rochester, the city with New York’s second largest economy and home to more than one million residents across the region.  Rochester was the city Time Warner Cable tried to use in New York for its 2009 test of Internet Overcharging schemes, claiming the usage limits would put Rochester high on the upgrade list for broadband expansion.  While other cities in New York never faced the prospects of usage limits and overlimit fees, they have all managed to obtain upgrades residents of the Flower City have yet to receive.

“Since we introduced Wideband earlier this year in Syracuse and throughout Central New York, customers looking for extra online speed have embraced our new service and its many benefits,” Henry Pearl, Area V.P. of Operations told the Oneida Daily Dispatch. “In addition to blazing-fast speeds, those benefits include shared wireless for multiple users through home networking, backed by our years of experience and dedicated, local customer service.”

Wideband service offers 50/5Mbps service for $99.95/month or 30/5 Mbps service for $69.95/month.

Already available in New York City, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, Utica, and Watertown, Wideband will also be available in Binghamton as well as the New York counties of Tompkins, Jefferson and Cortland by fall.

Knology, a West Point, Georgia-based cable overbuilder, has acquired Sunflower Broadband in Lawrence (Douglas County), Kansas for $165 million cash.

Knology has been buying small, independent cable operators across the south and midwest to build its footprint and become a larger player in the heavily integrated cable television and broadband marketplace.

The company expects to acquire Sunflower partly from its own cash reserves and the balance from low interest loans.

Knology praised Sunflower Broadband’s advanced infrastructure — it has already deployed DOCSIS 3 broadband upgrades and uses a modernized hybrid fiber-coaxial cable network.  Sunflower spends between $8-9 million annually in capital expansion, a level comparable to Knology.

The purchase of Sunflower opens additional potential purchasing opportunities for Knology in the region to add other cable companies to its portfolio.

Lawrence residents were treated to gushing, emotional coverage of the sale in the pages of the Lawrence Journal-World this morning.  A sample:

In the beginning there was the vision. Forty-five years later, it was a spectacular reality. Today, the baton is being passed to a new owner.

One reader said the newspaper had a Messiah Complex.

Employees were informed this morning, but most will not know what impact, if any, will come from the sale until it closes in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The impact of the sale is drawing mixed reviews from Lawrence residents, some concerned about the loss of another locally-owned and operated business to an out-of-state “conglomerate,” while others believe the sale offers the potential for better service without irritating usage limits.

A Lawrence computer repair expert, “Dr. Dave” recognized the impact of Internet Overcharging schemes on Lawrence residents in a thorough analysis of the then-potential sale:

Sunflower stands apart from most Internet Service providers with its bandwidth caps. Knology and other suitors of Sunflower do not have these artificial limits. We’ll be free to use the internet at whatever speed we choose to pay for without fear of limits and overages. Online backups, security updates, and videos will be accessible without the worry of nasty additional fees.

Additionally, because our newspaper and television providers will be separated, the Journal World will be able to more accurately and fairly report news in Lawrence. No longer will they be limited by their vested interest in the cable company. Media consolidation is generally against FCC rules, but the loophole is that Sunflower is not seen as a “media” company. The loophole will be closed and growth of both companies will be natural and organic and both companies will be made stronger. We as citizens will trust the newspaper to accurately report the news and the Journal World will be restored to its role as watchdog for the citizens it serves. If the cable company isn’t acting in our best interest, I would trust the Journal World to report on it. Knology won’t be able to slack off and reduce the quality we’ve come to expect from Sunflower–the newspaper will see to that.

Knology claims it will get $5 million in “synergies” from the merger, much coming from volume discount programming purchases, a switch to Knology’s billing systems, and potential layoffs.  However, since Sunflower Broadband’s operating area does not overlap existing Knology service areas, the impact on jobs may prove limited.

One impact subscribers may not miss is the end of Sunflower’s Internet Overcharging schemes.  Sunflower is one of a handful of cable operators placing arbitrary limits on their customers’ broadband usage.  Usage caps, speed throttles, and overlimit fees are all imposed on Sunflower’s customers.

Knology has never imposed similar schemes on their customers.  Now may be a good time for Sunflower customers to let Knology management know they want an end to Sunflower’s profit-padding usage limits, especially considering AT&T U-verse, increasing competition in Lawrence, does not limit usage either.

Cricket, the regional wireless carrier that claims to offer “unlimited” data plans that really are not, has jacked up prices on its wireless broadband plans and reduced wireless data usage allowances.

Cricket used to charge $40 a month for 5GB of monthly usage, $60 for 10GB.  No more.

Now the company wants you to pay more for less:

2.5GB for $40, 5GB for $50, and 7.5GB for $60 is hardly "respeKting" your wallet

Thankfully, existing Cricket customers are grandfathered into their existing $40 for 5GB plan, so they do not face the price hike and allowance cut.

Cricket’s claimed speeds up to 1.4Mbps are fiction — in our own tests we found service never exceeding 650kbps, and often averages 500kbps or less in the Rochester, N.Y. area.  When Cricket cell sites become congested, as they have in the southeastern part of the city, speeds can drop to 56kbps or less, making the service completely unusable.  While web page browsing and audio streaming are acceptable using Cricket, video streaming is not.  YouTube and other video multimedia was too painful to watch.

Cricket’s best advantage in the wireless broadband market was its pricing.  Customers accepted dramatically reduced coverage areas (don’t expect Cricket to work outside of the city, nearby suburbs, and adjacent major highways), slower speeds, and a “Fair Access Policy” that throttles your connection to dial-up speeds (or less) once you exceed your monthly allowance, all in return for service priced $20 less than most of the competition.  The modem is usually free or deeply discounted, and there is no contract requirement.

But at Cricket’s new pricing, consumers should take a look at Clearwire’s new 4G service, Comcast High Speed 2Go, or Road Runner Mobile instead.  Clear’s 4G-only plan offers unlimited access for $40.00 a month without a “Fair Access Policy” throttling your service to dial-up speeds, and much faster service than Cricket can provide.  The only downsides are the up front cost of the modem and being sure 4G is available in your area.

Clear, Comcast High Speed 2Go and Road Runner Mobile offer 4G service plans with a fallback option to 3G coverage for about $55 a month.  Clear and Comcast do not limit 4G usage, but do limit 3G access to 5GB per month before overlimit fees apply.  Road Runner Mobile offers unlimited access to both 3G and 4G service.

Cricket likes to claim it “respeKts your wallet.”  Raising prices and reducing usage allowances isn’t exactly a sign of respect.

We present a week of cable companies acting badly….  They charge you top dollar and leave their cables hanging all over the place.  Learn how homeowners turn in frustration to the media to correct sometimes dangerous installations that are accidents waiting to happen.  Cable Week on Stop the Cap!

If you are not a Rogers Cable customer, don’t bother calling them about problems with their cables because they don’t care.

That’s the message eastern Canada’s largest cable company had for one Toronto homeowner who thought he was being a Good Samaritan by letting the cable giant know the temporary cable they installed after a recent fire in his neighborhood had become a tangled, dangling mess.

On July 14, arsonists set four east-end garages ablaze, creating an enormous mess for utility companies whose cables were engulfed in flames so hot, they melted an adjacent homeowner’s siding right off his home despite being more than 30 meters away from the inferno.

Utility companies responded to restore service to homes between Prust and Hastings Avenues.  Temporary cables were installed by Hydro One, Bell, and Rogers.  Priority was given to service restoration, and it showed.  The resulting tangle of wire strung through fences and trees, across roofs and even along the pavement in the alley, according to a report in the Toronto Star.

While Hydro One and Bell managed to replace temporary lines with clean and neat permanent cables, Rogers left their temporary cables drooping and dangling all over the neighborhood.

The Star’s ‘Fixer’ picks up the story as a reader found an intransigent cable company unwilling to clean up their mess:

“Basically, I was told I would have to live with this mess because I’m not a (Rogers) subscriber,” said the reader.

He said wire was strung through his fence and in his neighbour’s parking space.

We checked it out and found an appalling sprawl of wires, some much larger than others, which suggests they’re major service lines, haphazardly strung through many backyards.

Rogers may not care about those who don’t buy service from them, but they do care about their image in the media.  When the newspaper called the cable company, a fire of a different kind was lit under them to get the job done.

Sarah Holland, who deals with media, arranged for a crew to go out the same day, which began work on permanent wiring Wednesday and completed the job Friday. The reader emailed again to say a “Rogers foreman just knocked on my door to have me inspect the job and ensure everything was done to my satisfaction. Now that’s service!”

Time Warner Cable is probably changing your channel lineup, or already has — removing several analog channels you used to receive as part of your Standard Service subscription and moving them to digital.

For customers with digital set top boxes, the change happens without most noticing the difference.  The formerly analog signal still shows up in the same place, only the transmission format has changed.

But customers without set top boxes will notice as channels disappear forever from their lineups, replaced with… nothing.  But their cable bills will remain exactly the same, despite the loss of channels.

For Stop the Cap! readers like Bev, today spelled the end of Animal Planet and The Travel Channel, among others.  For those in Rochester, N.Y., last night was the last chance to watch C-SPAN 2, The Travel Channel, TruTV, Discovery Health, and Shop NBC in analog.  In Buffalo, it was bye-bye to The Travel Channel, C-SPAN 2, TV Guide Channel, and CMT.

It some states, particularly Texas, Time Warner Cable is sticking it to Public Access, Educational, and Government channels, moving them all to digital.  In some cases, cable companies and AT&T U-verse have managed to forever bury these PEG channels in Digital Channel Siberia with channel numbers in the high hundreds or even thousands.  For many subscribers, a search and rescue team couldn’t find their new channel positions.

It’s all a part of a larger plan to slowly erode away analog channels in favor of digital service, which takes up far less bandwidth on Time Warner Cable systems.

As cable systems are nearing capacity and do not wish to spend millions to commit to further upgrades, switching out analog service in favor of digital can provide enormous new capacity to accommodate HD channels and forthcoming DOCSIS 3 cable modem service upgrades.

Unfortunately, these channel changes will irritate subscribers who do not want to pay for set top boxes and do not want them on their televisions.  If you are among this group of box-haters, Time Warner Cable will continue to slowly drop more and more of the channels you used to watch without bothering to reduce your bill for the channels you no longer get.  Eventually, virtually all analog channels will probably disappear, replaced by digital versions you will need a set top box to view.

In many areas of upstate New York, Time Warner is trying to placate angry subscribers by offering one set top box at no charge for one year.  But here comes the tricks and traps — Stop the Cap! confirmed with Time Warner Cable this evening that only those customers without any set top boxes in their home can take advantage of this free offer.  If you already have a box, you’ll continue to pay for it even though your neighbor is getting one free for a year.  After the year is up, pony up — each box costs $7.80 a month ($7.50 for the box, $0.30 for the remote).

At least Texans are getting a better deal from Time Warner Cable — Broadcast Basic subscribers will get their boxes free for five years, Standard Service customers will get them for one year.  But beware — if Time Warner needs to roll a truck to install your box in the San Antonio area, be prepared to cough up $39 for the service call.

For broadband customers, there is some good news.  Virtually all major Time Warner Cable service areas facing channel changes like this will receive DOCSIS 3 upgrades and the chance to obtain faster Internet service by the end of 2010, even those communities bypassed for earlier upgrades.  You will also get additional HD channels.  In western New York, for example, Time Warner Cable plans to add a large number of HD cable channels by mid-fall:

On or About September 2, 2010:
Style HD
BBC America HD

On or About September 9, 2010:
National Geographic Wild HD
MTV HD
Comedy Central HD
Nickelodeon HD
Spike HD

On or About September 16, 2010:
History Channel International HD
CMT HD
Hallmark HD
VH-1 HD
Cooking Channel HD
DIY HD
TWCSN HD
YNN HD

On or About October 1, 2010:
Womans Max HD
HBO Latino HD

Although never the cheapest provider in Chattanooga, municipally-owned EPB Fiber continues its track record as the city’s fastest Internet service provider, and has increased its value to residents with a free doubling of Internet speeds.

The speed upgrade arrives the same week AT&T mailers began showing up in Chattanooga residents’ mailboxes announcing U-verse was now available in the neighborhood.

AT&T joins Comcast in some areas, Charter in others — and EPB as the third competitor for cable, phone and broadband service in this part of southeastern Tennessee.

EPB Fiber to the Home Broadband Speeds

• 15/15Mbps service is now 30/30Mbps for $57.98 per month
• 20/20Mbps service is now 50/50Mbps for $69.99 per month
• 50/50Mbps service is now 100/100Mbps for $174.99 per month

A 150Mbps residential speed tier is also due anytime now.

Although EPB is already well known to Chattanooga residents as their local power company, the introduction of fiber optic telecommunications service has helped broaden the company’s reach.  EPB claims to be signing up around 500 residents a week for service.  The company does not use temporary pricing promotions to attract new customers — customers all get service for the same price.  But the attractiveness of the service, especially its speed, has made EPB popular with Internet enthusiasts.

John Appling in East Lake was shocked at just how fast EPB began installation of his fiber to the home service — within hours after the company placed a door-hanger tag announcing fiber service was now available on his street.

I called 30 minutes after the door tag was hung and to my delight was able to talk with a lady that was very nice, courteous and spoke perfect English. She took all my information and told me the day and time the installers would arrive to finish installing for the TV, internet and phone service inside my home, and that a crew would come by to install the boxes on the side of my home.

I left shortly after that call and returned a couple of hours later from grocery shopping. EPB contractors had already been to my home and installed the boxes on the side of the house. Yes, super fast service.

The day the installers came to complete the inside installation, they were on time, courteous and knew just what needed to be done to complete the install. One of the men even told me of a problem with my A/C heating unit duct work underneath my home which needed to be looked about soon. The men cleaned all the areas they worked in, made sure all my services worked correctly and asked if I had any questions they could answer before they left. Both men did a fantastic job and worked quickly to complete the work.

The pictures on our TVs never looked so great, the audio sounds wonderful also. Our telephone service is perfect and works just like anyone’s phone should. I enjoy the internet service most of all. I got the Fi-Internet 20. It is so fast and works great.

I have had to call twice this week to get the support group to help me with my internet connections and both times I have gotten a person who really helped me with my problems. They spoke perfect English, knew where I lived and what services I had from EPB. It is so nice to talk with our hometown folks and know they wanted to help myself in getting all I pay for in their services.

I just read where I was one of the first of 5,000 people to have their services installed in my home. Believe me, I am so thankful that EPB has the TV, internet and phone services. I have seen so many ads from their competitors with special prices for this or that. I am just glad to have the services of EPB services myself.

What will your future look like?  While most of the country contends with a broadband duopoly providing “fast enough service for you” broadband, EPB Fiber in Chattanooga, Tenn., is bringing southeastern Tennessee broadband speeds they could only dream about before.  Even better, EPB Fiber is bringing new jobs to the region and helping to light a fire under Chattanooga’s economy as one of the fastest connected cities in the southern United States.  (6 minutes)

AT&T's HotZone in Charlotte only covers a tiny portion of the city, along S. Brevard Street between the NASCAR Hall of Fame and East Trade Street and for AT&T customers waiting to use the nearby Lynx light rail.

What do you do when your wireless 3G network capacity is hopelessly overloaded and you don’t want to spend the money to upgrade the network to meet the daily demands your customers place on it?  You offload as much of that traffic as possible on less costly, conventional Wi-Fi network technology.

AT&T has discovered that Wi-Fi can turn an ugly congestion problem into a marketing opportunity.  The company has announced free, unlimited access to its increasing number of “Hotzones” to AT&T wireless customers, promising stronger signals and faster speeds along the way.  The three cities chosen for the launch of the neighborhood-blanketing Wi-Fi service are New York, Charlotte, N.C.,  and Chicago.

That New York and Chicago are on the list come as little surprise, but why Charlotte?

It turns out Charlotte is among the top-10 cities companies use to test market new products and services to get a better feel of how customers will react.  Charlotte has served as a test market for years.  FedEx used the city to test drop boxes inside U.S. post offices back in 2001.  Time Warner Cable brought its “Start Over” and “Caller ID on TV” services to Charlotte to get customer reaction.  AT&T first test marketed its 3G Microcell service in the area, so the company has a track record of choosing the community to test its newest offerings.

Stop the Cap! has been measuring reaction on our own to learn what Charlotte residents think about AT&T’s Hotzone.

First, many AT&T customers are still unaware that this Wi-Fi service has even made it to Charlotte.  For those who have learned about it, anything that improves AT&T’s service in uptown Charlotte is good news for them.

“Although AT&T in Charlotte has never suffered from the kind of congestion faced in larger cities, when you concentrate a lot of data users in one area, such as the Time Warner Cable Arena on East Trade, AT&T’s network can slow to a crawl,” writes Stop the Cap! reader Eric, who lives in Charlotte.  “I have ventured around that area several times and, to be honest, you can quietly hop on one of many business Wi-Fi hotspots for free now, but you can’t go too far before losing the signal.”

Eric says AT&T would be better off extending their Wi-Fi network across the city of Charlotte if they really want to offload 3G traffic.

“Wi-Fi is faster than their 3G service and it’s unlimited,” he notes. “I’d actually have a much more favorable impression of AT&T if they created city-wide Wi-Fi networks for their customers because it would add tremendous value and be a great reason to stick with AT&T for cell service.”

But Liam, who works in downtown Charlotte but lives near Freedom Park writes it’s a Band-Aid for a much bigger problem — AT&T underestimating the demand on their network.

“I am not sure how excited I should be about a Hotzone that runs up a street for about four city blocks,” he says.  “This is not midtown Manhattan where a service like that could make a huge difference for residents of skyscraping-condos and apartment buildings.  What about the rest of Charlotte?”

Liam was an AT&T customer but left for Verizon Wireless nearly a year ago.  He thinks AT&T isn’t a bad provider in Charlotte — in fact he thinks AT&T does a much better job in rural western North Carolina than Verizon does, but inside metro Charlotte, Verizon’s signals are more consistent.

“If this service does reach into Time Warner Cable Arena, it could make a big difference though, especially when that stadium is nearly full,” Liam notes. “Somehow I think we’ll see Time Warner Cable’s own Wi-Fi service operating there, for free, in the not-too-distant future.”

The Charlotte Observer‘s @Charlotte blog asked readers what they thought about AT&T’s Charlotte Hotzone in two articles.  Amidst a rhetorical war over the merits of AT&T and Apple’s latest iPhone, most comments welcomed the improved service, even if some are not sure exactly where that improved service can be found.

Reporter Eric Frazier wrote, “I was trying to find out for certain whether this zone will cover the office towers along Tryon Street, but a spokesperson for AT&T told me they can’t say whether specific buildings, such as the Bank of America headquarters, will or won’t be covered by the Hotzone.

Reverend Mike wants to know when he can get a Hotzone installed in his backyard, noting he was “glad to hear they are setting this up downtown.”

AT&T completed upgrades to its HSPA 7.2 network earlier this year and offers about double the potential speed its older 3G network provided Charlotte customers.

Is Rahm Emanuel the consigliere to a deal to sell out broadband consumers to big telecom companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast?

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is said to so afraid of big phone and cable companies donating millions to Republican candidates, he told agencies like the Federal Communications Commission to go along with Verizon, AT&T, and Big Cable’s demands for an end to Net Neutrality and other pro-consumer broadband reforms.

That is the rumor industry expert Dave Burstein is hearing about the prospects of broadband reclassification actually happening at the FCC this year.

It seems Verizon’s CEO Ivan Seidenberg has become a frequent guest at the White House, appearing 16 times since President Obama took office.  Seidenberg is behind the notion that saddling giant telecommunications companies with Net Neutrality will force those firms to flood Republicans with unprecedented campaign contributions.  That’s fascinating news, especially since most politicians claim campaign contributions never make any difference in how they vote on issues.  Perhaps Verizon is just being extra charitable this year.  The Republicans, who fall lock-step in support behind the nation’s largest phone and cable companies, will be delighted to accept.

With politicians like Rahm Emanuel involved, the fix may already be in.  Rule number one in politics is to always follow the money.  Rule number two is that many politicians will always take the money and vote against their constituents’ best interests unless voters are paying attention.  When a politician is forced to weigh the consequences of accepting a fat check from a corporation and voting with them or infuriating their constituents to the point of potentially losing the next election, they’ll vote with their constituents.

Meanwhile, telecom companies are engaged in a divide-and-conquer strategy, with Verizon recently making gestures to Google, one of Net Neutrality’s strongest  proponents.  Burstein thinks that unless public interest groups and the public-at-large don’t force an end to these insider deals, Net Neutrality and other broadband reforms will become little more than a voluntary agreement not to be too evil (until they redefine ‘evil’ as ‘good’ and do it anyway):

Julius (Genachowski) has already agreed to almost everything [telecom lobbyists] really want, including loopholes wide enough to carry 350 TV channels. [Stifel Nicolaus] says there is still some opposition so that nothing is final and that the public interest groups are ready to assail Julius. Meanwhile, Verizon and Google are discussing a separate peace that will make the FCC irrelevant.

This one is about power and money, not principle. The likely outcome is an agreement that will allow everyone to say noble things, will allow Julius to look himself in the mirror, and will essentially have no substance.  I hope I’m wrong.

Bloomberg News reviews the regulatory landscape with the FCC’s secret weekend meetings to find a deal on broadband rules.  (2 minutes)

For consumer groups like Free Press and Public Knowledge, already furious over secret backroom negotiations between FCC officials and the nation’s large phone and cable companies, any deal that culminates in providers being allowed to tamper with Internet traffic, choosing favorites along the way, is tantamount to a deal with Tony Soprano.

Tim Karr from Free Press wrote a guest editorial in the Seattle Times Sunday warning there is a corporate deal in the making to take over the Internet:

On the one side, elected officials and regulators have heard from millions of citizens demanding that Washington protect this rule that preserves the Internet’s open architecture.

On the other is a lobbying juggernaut that seeks to dismantle online openness so that phone and cable companies can rebuild the Internet as a gated community that serves their bottom line.

The problem is that policymakers aren’t holding the line for the public. They seem content simply to cut a deal between companies with the most political and economic clout.

If that doesn’t worry you, it should.

Because the deal they’re cutting is over who ultimately wins control of online information. And it goes without saying that you’re not in the running.

Google, Verizon, AT&T and others are reportedly nearing consensus on an agreement that could radically redesign the Web, allowing the carriers to build priority access lanes that admit only large companies that can pay the toll.

Where will that leave the rest of us? Stranded on the digital equivalent of a winding dirt road, with slower service, fewer choices and limited access.

Here’s the kicker. The Federal Communications Commission, the one agency tasked with protecting your interests online, may be poised to sign off on this plan. The agency is reportedly convening closed-door meetings with these companies to strike a deal that would let Internet providers implement a “paid prioritization” scheme.

According to The Washington Post, the FCC’s chief of staff wanted to “seize an opportunity to agree on ways that carriers could “manage traffic” on their networks.

If recent articles by Amazon and AT&T execs are any indication, paid prioritization would allow carriers to ransom access to their customers to the highest bidder. AT&T’s top lobbyist, James Cicconi, wrote that such extortion was “not only necessary but in the best interest of consumers.”

Don’t believe it. The beauty of the open Internet is that anyone with an idea has a chance to take on giant corporations without first having to bribe network owners for access. Net neutrality is the rule that guarantees this openness.

It’s because of Net neutrality that great ideas like YouTube (which began in an office above a pizzeria in San Mateo) and Twitter (which grew out of a daylong brainstorming session among podcasters) blossomed to revolutionize how we connect and communicate with one another.

The paid prioritization deal under consideration wouldn’t allow for the next YouTube. And the next Twitter would likely never make it off the drawing board.

This scheme would let companies like Comcast and AT&T favor their own video services, voice applications and social media. It would let Verizon build a wide moat around its Internet fiefdom, insulating itself from competition by upstart innovators that want to show consumers how things can be done better and more cheaply.

Columbia Law Professor (and Free Press board chairman) Tim Wu has said that letting carriers choose favorites is “just too close to the Tony Soprano vision of networking: Use your position to make threats and extract payments. This is similar to the outlawed, but still common, ‘payola’ schemes in the radio world.

“If allowing network discrimination means being stuck with AT&T’s long-term vision of the Internet,” Wu concludes, “it won’t be worth it.”

Should any of this come to pass, it will mark the end of any credibility for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who will have sold out to the interests of big telecom and, more importantly, proved himself little more than another inside-the-beltway-liar.  The implications for the Obama Administration’s credibility on broadband issues are devastating.

It was Genachowski himself who promised this would be the most open FCC ever and that he would see to it that the open principles of the Internet were safeguarded.  It’s more than a little difficult to see that happening while Genachowski’s staff secretly meets with telecom lobbyists to conclude a deal that will turn over control of Internet traffic to a broadband duopoly.