Inouye

Three senior Democrats on the Senate Commerce Committee have characterized the Federal Communication Commission’s national broadband expansion plans as inadequate — firmly rooting America as second class citizens in a global broadband market.

In three separate letters to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the senators criticized the chairman’s plan for broadband targets set too low, both in vision and in speed.

Genachowski’s plan calls for Americans to have universal access to at least 4/1Mbps service no later than 2020, a goal Genachowski described as “an aggressive target.”

But in a letter obtained by CQ, Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) noted that such speed goals were set low in comparison to other countries, many of which are on target to achieve 100Mbps broadband well before 2020.

“What is the FCC’s rationale for a vision that appears to be firmly rooted in the second tier of countries?” Inouye wrote.

Begich

Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska) wanted to know how Genachowski settled for 4Mbps download speed, noting that seemed to him to be too modest.

In fact, speed goals in the National Broadband Plan were a major point of contention in the National Broadband Plan, with lobbyists from AT&T and Verizon pushing hard for the lowest possible speed goals.  That is because they are the largest traditional landline providers saddled with aging copper wire networks which provide broadband to most rural Americans through DSL.  Most Americans living outside of major population centers rely on phone company-delivered DSL service typically speed rated at 768kbps-3Mbps.  Because DSL service is distance sensitive, a speed target of just 4Mbps requires a considerably lower investment than a target of 20Mbps or higher.  It is likely 100Mbps service, outlined as a goal for at least 100 million Americans, will first be achieved through fiber and cable networks in large cities, and not from phone company DSL service.

The difficulty for rural Americans to achieve a fair shake in broadband was highlighted by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota).  He cited his state’s poor ranking — 42nd in broadband speed, as evidence Americans in rural states suffer with considerably lower quality broadband service.  The FCC’s National Broadband Plan, Dorgan fears, may only recreate the digital divide, only with different levels of speeds.

Dorgan

If 100 million Americans can access broadband services at 100Mbps, a rural speed target of 4Mbps will make new, high bandwidth-dependent Internet services just as off-limits to rural America as basic broadband is today in many areas.

Genachowski promised to review broadband speed targets every four years, making adjustments when necessary to be certain rural Americans receive broadband service comparable to urban areas.

But with the wide disparity in speed goals for urban and rural America, that may be impossible in the short term, especially as telecom industry lobbyists continue to pressure Congress for less regulation and no government mandates.

AT&T U-verse customers may have to do without these shows if an agreement cannot be reached with Rainbow Media

AT&T U-verse customers may lose access to three basic cable networks in less than two days if a dispute over how much money AT&T should pay for the networks isn’t settled.

Rainbow Media’s AMC, We TV, and the Independent Film Channel are all threatened with removal from AT&T’s nationwide U-verse lineup as a two week extension of carriage negotiations appears to be going nowhere.

In an ironic “now the shoe is on the other foot” twist, Rainbow Media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cablevision Industries — the cable system serving parts of downstate New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  AT&T is using some of the same language Cablevision used earlier this year in a dispute over fees charged by Scripps’ Food Network and HGTV, as well as Disney-owned WABC-TV in New York.  Rainbow even borrowed a page from Scripps and launched an AT&T protest site, Facebook page and Twitter account.

“AT&T is acting in an aggressive manner that puts their corporate interests ahead of their customers,” AMC said in a statement. “We are negotiating in good faith with AT&T and are hopeful that we can reach an agreement as soon as possible so that our viewers don’t lose out.”

Meanwhile, AT&T is publicly insulting Rainbow’s cable networks.

“Based on aggregate data we obtained from third party industry sources and our own subscribers, some of the Rainbow channels are among the least-watched and most overpriced per viewer compared to other major programming providers,” an AT&T spokeswoman told Deadline. “They’re also trying to force the renegotiation of a contract for one of their other channels that is not yet expired and force us to carry a new channel that wasn’t even formally presented to us until after the recent July 1 contract extension. We want our customers to know that we can’t and won’t give in to unreasonable deals that unfairly disadvantage our customers.”

Despite AT&T’s bravado, Rainbow may have the upper hand with a more aggressive outreach campaign.  AT&T’s website for U-verse has not mentioned the dispute — a potential PR mistake if it wants to argue its position about programming costs.

Bad engineering and all-out deception from Apple’s public relations department have led Consumer Reports to declare the Apple iPhone 4 defective — not recommended for consideration until Apple either fixes the antenna or declares the phone a dud and recalls them.  For those who already made their purchase, the magazine suggests a roll of duct tape may help mask the problem.

[flv width=”320″ height=”200″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Consumer Reports iPhone4 Defect 7-12-10.flv[/flv]

Consumer Reports’ engineers carefully tested Apple’s latest iPhone release and quickly discovered a serious defect in its basic functionality and design. (1 minute)

Consumer Reports recommends a well-placed strip of duct tape to resolve Apple's engineering failure

Apple’s deceptive comments claiming that a “software problem” was responsible for the shoddily-engineered antenna has only fueled additional lawsuits against the company for fraud, deception, negligence, concealment, and breach of warranty.  Consumer Reports, which independently tests all of the products it reviews, easily found the iPhone 4 flawed to the point of not functioning in marginal signal areas (something AT&T specializes in providing its customers) just by holding it in your hand.

It’s official. Consumer Reports‘ engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.

We reached this conclusion after testing all three of our iPhone 4s (purchased at three separate retailers in the New York area) in the controlled environment of CU’s radio frequency (RF) isolation chamber. In this room, which is impervious to outside radio signals, our test engineers connected the phones to our base-station emulator, a device that simulates carrier cell towers (see video: IPhone 4 Design Defect Confirmed). We also tested several other AT&T phones the same way, including the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre. None of those phones had the signal-loss problems of the iPhone 4.

Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4’s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that “mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”

No surprise there.  Apple’s claims that a “software problem” was responsible for dropping phone calls and misstating AT&T’s reception quality was accepted primarily by tech bloggers who live or die based on the access they get to Apple’s latest product releases, as well as an army of Apple fans who reflexively defend the company from any criticism, regardless of how well-placed.  Independent tests from Consumer Reports prove the iPhone 4 cannot be relied on to make and receive phone calls while being held, unless you mitigate their design flaw with an external case, or as Consumer Reports suggests, a piece of well-placed, hideously ugly duct tape:

We did, however, find an affordable solution for suffering iPhone 4 users: Cover the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or another thick, non-conductive material. It may not be pretty, but it works. We also expect that using a case would remedy the problem. We’ll test a few cases this week and report back.

The fact that the magazine issued a “Not Recommended” rating for the phone generated a new round of negative stories in the mainstream media about the company and its latest smartphone.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Apple iPhone Flaw Consumer Reports 7-12-10.flv[/flv]

Bloomberg News ran three news reports today talking about Apple’s strategic problems and also extensively interviewed Michael Gikas, senior electronics editor at Consumer Reports.  He wants Apple to hand out its $30 Bumper case to consumers for free, something Apple has so far refused to do. (11 minutes)

[flv width=”600″ height=”356″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WABC New York Apple iPhone Flawed 7-12-10.flv[/flv]

WABC-TV in New York also ran a significant report this evening about the Consumer Reports findings, and get consumers’ reactions. (2 minutes)

Earthlink, which depends on phone and cable companies to deliver its broadband service, has imposed a monthly usage limit of 250 gigabytes on its customers obtaining service from Comcast.

Customers began receiving postcards in May notifying them about the change in service terms which took effect July 1st.  Earthlink blamed the usage limits solely on Comcast, noting they were dependent on other companies to provide the infrastructure necessary to reach customers:

Comcast and other cable providers provide portions of the network that EarthLink High Speed Cable service uses to deliver broadband Internet access. EarthLink provides the other portions of the network and services like Webmail and the myEarthLink Start Page®.  EarthLink works with its business partners, like Comcast, to manage the network infrastructure.  […]Because Comcast is EarthLink’s business partner in providing the EarthLink Powered by Comcast Service, EarthLink is working closely with Comcast in implementing this Usage Cap.

Internet providers routinely sell the benefits of their broadband accounts to better accomplish data-heavy activities like online video using their service, even though in some cases all of that "heavy use" is being used as an excuse to implement usage limits on customers.

In reality, Earthlink offers little more than a handful of its own services to customers.  Most of its network connectivity, billing, and other services are handled by the providing cable or phone company.  Customer support with many technical issues is handled by Earthlink’s own off-shore technical support staff.

Still, Earthlink had offered an alternative to those threatened with Internet Overcharging schemes by Time Warner Cable and Comcast because the company had not adopted those usage limits until Comcast insisted they follow suit.  Presumably with this precedent in place, any other Overcharging schemes imposed by these providers would also impact their respective Earthlink customers.

For those violating the usage limits, enforcement won’t come from Earthlink.  Instead, the provider warns, Comcast will be the entity that comes down on your head.

For now, Earthlink customers will have to call the company (888-327-8454) to determine how much data they’ve used during the month as the Comcast data usage meter is apparently only for Comcast customers.

Rep. James Boles Jr. of Moore County seen yawning as the North Carolina Legislature worked long hours to close the session for the year. (Photo: Charlotte Observer photographer Corey Lowenstein)

A bill to temporarily ban municipal broadband projects in North Carolina went down in flames early Saturday after a marathon 19-hour closing session of the legislature allowed a handful of pro-consumer legislators to finally corner and kill the bill.  But that victory would not have come without a coordinated effort by consumers and communities across the state vociferously objecting to legislation designed to protect the duopoly of phone and cable service offered by Time Warner Cable, AT&T, and CenturyLink.

This was the fourth attempt by big telecom companies to get state legislators to do their bidding.  It’s almost as if they want to work harder to stop competitors from delivering service than they work at delivering it themselves.  North Carolina is ranked 41st out of 50 states in broadband adoption. Significant areas of the state are not served by any broadband provider, and broadband speeds experienced by customers in North Carolina are among the slowest in the country.

This year’s battle was among the most difficult because its biggest backer, retiring Senator David Hoyle (D-Gaston), was considered a heavyweight in the legislature, serving in the North Carolina Senate for 18 years.

The drama that would eventually wind its way to the bill’s demise began late Friday evening in an overnight session of the state legislature.

Catharine Rice from the SouthEast Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (SEATOA) is our tour guide through the winding, treacherous waters of a North Carolina legislature in its final hours of the session for the year:

Saturday morning, July 11, at 5 a.m., the NC House of Representatives killed Senator Hoyle’s (D-Gaston) attempt  to force a moratorium on municipalities seeking to provide their communities broadband service. This was the industry’s 3rd (actually 4th) attempt to stop municipalities from providing superior broadband infrastructure to the communities.

Rep. Luebke

The bill died on Saturday after a one-two punch. First, the House Ways & Means Committee had refused to hear S1209 since June 8, under the hands of Committee Chair-Rep. Faison (D-Orange, Caswell), when it crossed from the Senate to the House. Then late Friday evening, the House itself added an amendment to its Study Authorization Bill (SB900) permitting, but not requiring, the Revenue Laws Study Committee to study the laws and circumstances surrounding municipalities providing broadband service to their communities, but dropping all other terms of S1209, mainly  the moratorium. The Senate concurred with House bill 900 unanimously later in the evening (9:49pm) and it was enrolled for review and signature by the Governor. (See Sections 7.5 (a) and (b) here)

Ten minutes later, Sen. Clodfelter introduced H455, a bill whose effect would have changed the approach of the House’s version of the municipal bbnd study. With H455, Senator Clodfelter gutted a House kidney awareness bill, and poured into it the “study” portion of S1209 (Hoyle’s Anti-Muni broadband bill), changing the House version by setting a date certain when the study (and recommended legislation) would have to be completed (March 2011), and increasing the number of seats on the subcommittee from 12 to 14, adding assigned seats for telephone coops and the NC County. The House version did not mandate a study, but made it optional, did not specifically authorize the committee to recommend legislation, and set the seats for the subcommittee at 12, naming 8 with an additional four unassigned seats. Clodfelter’s H455 contained two other sections, one addressing a fluke in sales tax refunds for MI-Connection, the Mooresville-Davidson muni broadband system.

Around 2:45 Saturday morning, on Rep. Paul Luebke’s (D-Durham) motion, the House denied concurrence with the Senate on H455 (96 to deny, 1 to allow). At 3:45 a.m., the House approved a Senate/House conference committee report for the purpose of keeping only one section of H455, (effectively deleting H455′s changes to the House study version of S1209). H455 (here) now provides a state sales tax refund status for Davidson and Mooresville’s MI-CONNECTION system, status the two towns would have if individually providing cable service, but from which they were disqualified by having  joined together to provide broadband cable  service.  On a vote of 91 to 6, the House approved the Senate/House conference report. At 4:55 a.m. the Senate concurred with that report and it was enrolled for the Governor’s attention.

Source: SpeedMatters/CWA

Bottom line, the effort to place a moratorium on consideration for new municipal broadband projects in the state is dead for 2010.  The next opportunity big telecom has for another anti-consumer bill is in January 2011.  At least the North Carolina legislature passed some additional ethics and government reform measures that will give consumers even more tools to fight the next battle:

• It toughens penalties for illegal campaign donations above $10,000.  As we’ve seen repeatedly, big campaign contributions can make all the difference when legislators throw their constituents’ interests under the bus.  Big phone and cable interests are among the most generous contributors, making it easy to find one or more members willing to carry their legislative agenda forward;
• Requires board and commission members to account for campaign fundraising activities for elected officials who appointed them.  A case of mutual back-scratching, powerful legislators can often find places for their special interest friends and supporters to serve on state commissions and boards.
• Expands personnel information that must be released to the public about state employees.  We saw the implications of conflicts of interest in the legislature this past session when one member contemplating municipal broadband bans also happened to be one of Time Warner Cable’s engineering contractors.  More information, this time about past work by state employees, prevents these kinds of conflicts from staying secret.

Please thank Reps. Faison and Luebke for their hard work to stop the broadband moratorium.  It’s unfortunate Rep. Faison’s efforts to bring better broadband to Caswell County, part of his district, were unsuccessful.  But at least Caswell County leaders won’t face a broadband moratorium should they wish to renew their efforts to provide broadband service where CenturyLink will not.

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Why we fight.  Communities like Salisbury, N.C., can now move forward on their own municipal broadband projects.  Back in May, WBTV-TV in Charlotte highlighted Fibrant, the community’s answer to bad service from incumbent providers.  (4 minutes)