Windstream Communications is under investigation by the Governor’s Office of Consumer Protection because of allegations the company is advertising broadband speeds and performance the company simply cannot deliver its customers in Georgia.

A Windstream employee in a company retail office in Dawsonville told an undercover CBS Atlanta photographer that the company can offer Internet speeds up to 24Mbps. He guaranteed service no slower than 6 to 12Mbps. But Mark Creekmore, who lives in Dawsonville, reports his speeds sometimes barely reach 1Mbps during the afternoons.

Duane Hartness, a Windstream customer, says Windstream has oversubscribed their service by continuing to sell broadband on a network that is overcrowded as-is, which slows speeds for every customer.

“Every customer they add to their oversubscribed DSLAM increases their revenue while further degrading your bandwidth,” Hartness said. “Lacking competition, they can ignore any and all complaints.”

Creekmore wants every Windstream customer in Georgia that is dissatisfied with their broadband service to file complaints with the state agency.

“The more complaints, the more likely the Office of Consumer Protection is to take action,” Creekmore said. “Please make sure to include that you are not getting what you are paying for and any other personal detail that would help them understand what you have gone through. If you have had multiple communications with Windstream, please include those details as well. In short, the more detail the better.”

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WGCL Atlanta Windstream Exposed for Not Providing Speeds Promised 3-7-13.mp4[/flv]

WGCL — CBS Atlanta reports there are new developments in Georgia regarding Windstream: It is under investigation by the governor’s office for misleading subscribers with broadband speeds the company cannot actually deliver.  (3 minutes)

The FCC finds Windstream is the worst of the worst among DSL providers, only giving customers advertised speeds 81 percent of the time. AT&T, Georgia’s largest phone company, doesn’t do much better.

Windstream is the worst-performing DSL provider in the country according to the Federal Communications Commission, with just 81 percent of customers getting the broadband speeds marketed.

After complaints about the company helped derail H.B. 282 — a bill Windstream heavily lobbied for that would have eliminated possible competition from community-owned providers — Windstream representatives quickly began promising upgrades.

“We’re asking our customers to be patient with us because we’re on it. We understand that they have issues and we’re working to upgrade their network,” Bettye Willis, a regional vice president at Windstream, told the CBS station in Atlanta.

Willis added Windstream was committed to solving its Internet speed problems, but not for everyone.

The company released this map showing planned service upgrades for “two-thirds of the communities it serves” in Georgia. But the company warned not everyone would receive improved service. For the remaining one-third, “take it or leave it” broadband service will continue.

Powell

Georgia’s House of Representatives on Thursday killed a bill that would have made community-owned broadband networks difficult to build and impossible to expand.

House Bill 282 failed with a bipartisan vote — 94 against and 70 for, with the help of Democrats and rural Republicans who represent poorly wired districts.

The measure would have made Georgia the 20th state to place impediments on public broadband networks, usually built in areas where incumbent providers have failed to offer good service.

Rep. Jay Powell (R-Camilla) told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he voted against the measure because the lack of broadband has already cost his community economic development opportunities.

“You cannot get it, you cannot keep it without high speed fiber,” Powell said. The provider, he said, “ wouldn’t provide it because they knew they didn’t have to. They provided whatever crumbs from the table they wanted.”

The majority of those voting for the broadband ban were Republicans, but a curious block of mostly urban Democratic legislators also supported the bill.

Stop the Cap! encourages Georgia readers to reach out to these elected officials and let them know you are disappointed with the way they voted on this measure. It is more likely than not that another version of this bill will be introduced next year, making it critical that likely supporters of anti-broadband bills have an ample warning in advance you will be watching them:

1. Alex Atwood (R – Brunswick) District 179
2. Mandi L. Ballinger (R – Canton) District 23
3. Timothy Barr (R – Lawrenceville) District 103
4. Ellis Black (R – Valdosta) District 174
5. Buzz Brockway (R – Lawrenceville) District 102
6. Bob Bryant (D – Garden City) District 162
7. Jon G. Burns (R – Newington) District 159
8. John Carson (R – Marietta) District 46
9. David Casas (R – Lilburn) District 107
10. Joyce Chandler (R – Lawrenceville) District 105
11. Mickey Channell (R – Greensboro) District 120
12. Mike Cheokas (R – Americus) District 138
13. Christian Coomer (R – Cartersville) District 14
14. Sharon Cooper (R – Marietta) District 43
15. Robert Dickey (R – Musella) District 140
16. Matt Dollar (R – Marietta) District 45
17. Mike Dudgeon (R – Johns Creek) District 25
18. Geoff Duncan (R – Cumming) District 26
19. Earl Ehrhart (R – Powder Springs) District 36
20. 

    Virgil Fludd: Voted against community broadband.

    Virgil Fludd (D – Tyrone) District 64

21. Carol Fullerton (D – Albany) District 153
22. Mike Glanton (D – Jonesboro) District 75
23. Mark Hamilton (R – Cumming) District 24
24. Ben Harbin (R – Evans) District 122
25. Brett Harrell (R – Snellville) District 106
26. Calvin Hill (R – Canton) District 22
27. Bill Hitchens (R – Rincon) District 161
28. Penny Houston (R – Nashville) District 170
29. Mike Jacobs (R – Brookhaven) District 80
30. Rick Jasperse (R – Jasper) District 11
31. Jan Jones (R – Milton) District 47
32. Sheila Jones (D – Atlanta) District 53
33. Darryl Jordan (D – Riverdale) District 77
34. David Knight (R – Griffin) District 130
35. Edward Lindsey (R – Atlanta) District 54
36. Chuck Martin (R – Alpharetta) District 49
37. Howard Maxwell (R – Dallas) District 17
38. 

    O’Neal: Voted to protect incumbent providers.

    Rahn Mayo (D – Decatur) District 84

39. Billy Mitchell (D – Stone Mountain) District 88
40. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D – Austell) District 39
41. Greg Morris (R – Vidalia) District 156
42. Chad Nimmer (R – Blackshear) District 178
43. Larry O`Neal (R – Bonaire) District 146
44. Butch Parrish (R – Swainsboro) District 158
45. Don Parsons (R – Marietta) District 44
46. Allen Peake (R – Macon) District 141
47. Alan Powell (R – Hartwell) District 32
48. Jimmy Pruett (R – Eastman) District 149
49. Matt Ramsey (R – Peachtree City) District 72
50. Nikki T. Randall (D – Macon) District 142
51. Tom Rice (R – Norcross) District 95
52. Jay Roberts (R – Ocilla) District 155
53. Carl Rogers (R – Gainesville) District 29
54. 

    Smith: A business owner that doesn’t mind if rural Georgia is left behind.

    Ed Rynders (R – Albany) District 152

55. Jason Shaw (R – Lakeland) District 176
56. Donna Sheldon (R – Dacula) District 104
57. Barbara Sims (R – Augusta) District 123
58. Earnest Smith (D – Augusta) District 125
59. Lynn Smith (R – Newnan) District 70
60. Calvin Smyre (D – Columbus) District 135
61. Jason Spencer (R – Woodbine) District 180
62. Ron Stephens (R – Savannah) District 164
63. Valencia Stovall (D – Ellenwood) District 74
64. Willie Talton (R – Warner Robins) District 147
65. Jan Tankersley (R – Brooklet) District 160
66. Sam Teasley (R – Marietta) District 37
67. Ben Watson (R – Savannah) District 166
68. Al Williams (D – Midway) District 168
69. “Coach” Williams (D – Avondale Estates) District 87
70. John P Yates (R – Griffin) District 73

Cable, satellite, and telco-TV subscribers face paying an extra $12 a year for two new sports channels that are certain to be added to the lineup by this summer.

Rupert Murdoch’s dream is to launch a cable sports network that can successfully rival ESPN. That dream begins to come true in August when News Corporation launches FOX Sports 1, a makeover of the Speed Channel that will cost subscribers more. Soon after, the Fuel Channel will relaunch as FOX Sports 2, a companion network.

The networks will carry programming acquired from deals with a range of sports leagues. FOX Sports 1 will feature Major League Baseball games starting next year. For the late summer and early fall of this year, the new sports channels will be packed with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (and truck races), pro archery which implies that new bowstring, UFC matches, and a range of college football and basketball games.

While the initial price of the new sports networks is relatively cheap at $1 a month per subscriber, in contrast with ESPN’s $5.15 monthly asking price, Murdoch and other Fox executives hope to one day rival ESPN, which guarantees bidding wars for sports programming that will escalate cable programming costs and subscriber bills.

Chase Carey, president of Fox, acknowledged the cost to acquire rights for sports programming have increased, but he believes sports programming will continue to be a priority for subscribers willing to tolerate higher bills for premier sporting events that may be featured on platforms such as the WSM Casino.

“We think sports is a huge arena that has room in it to build a really attractive businesses,” Carey told analysts on an earnings call last month.

[flv width=”360″ height=”290″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Market Is Big Enough for Fox Sports 1 3-6-13.mp4[/flv]

Lee Berke, president of LHB Sports Entertainment Media, talks about News Corp.’s plan to start a national sports network to debut in August. Fox Sports 1 will be available to more than 90 million pay-TV homes, New York-based News Corp. said yesterday in a statement. He speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” (4 minutes)

FOX SPORTS 1 PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

COLLEGE BASKETBALL – Dozens of exclusive prime time games on Monday and Thursday nights, plus Saturday and Sunday coverage of the Big 12, Pac-12 and Conference USA.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL – Led by Notre Dame at Stanford, the Big Ten Championship Game and Pac-12 Championship Game (2014) on FOX, dozens of exclusive, live games from the Pac-12, Big 12 and Conference USA on Thursday nights and Saturdays; triple- and quadruple-headers on Saturdays; Saturday pre- and postgame coverage.

MLB – Beginning in 2014, select League Championship Series and Division Series games; regular-season games over 26 Saturdays; live game-in-progress look-in show.

NASCAR – Select NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races as soon as 2015; NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races; NASCAR Sprint All-Star race; all SpeedWeeks events leading up to the Daytona 500 including: Daytona 500 Qualifying, Sprint Unlimited at Daytona (2014, 2017-22) and the Budweiser Duel, now in prime time; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NCWTS Practice and Qualifying sessions; NASCAR RaceDay, providing pre- and post-race coverage; NASCAR Victory Lane, a weekly wrap-up show; and Race Hub, a daily mid-day studio show with the latest from drivers, owners and garages.

SOCCER – Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday afternoon coverage of the world’s most prolific club soccer competitions, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, and CONCACAF Champions League featuring many of the world’s greatest and most successful clubs; the world’s oldest soccer competition, the FA Cup; CONCACAF Gold Cup; CONCACAF Qualifiers, FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage in 2015 and 2019; FIFA Men’s World Cup coverage in 2018 and 2022; delayed matches in prime time; weekly magazine and highlights shows.

UFC – Featured on Wednesday nights; live FIGHT NIGHTS through 2014, the first is scheduled for launch night, Saturday, Aug. 17; FOX event preliminary cards; UFC Tonight, the weekly authority for UFC news and information; 14 Saturday pay-per-view preliminary cards; hundreds of hours of library programs and events.

Cohen

Comcast executive David Cohen and his wife, Rhonda, raised more than $500,000 for President Obama’s re-election campaign from contributions from friends and corporate associates.

In addition to straight contributions, the Cohens were among the top three money-bundlers for the Obama campaign in the greater Philadelphia area, funneling large sums of cash from a variety of sources to the Obama re-election effort.

Critics contend this level of money in politics assures large corporate donors can get access to top elected officials and bend their ears on administration policies. It also could get donors more favorable treatment from regulators beholden to the administration or Congress.

Although the Cohens have been legendary fundraisers for Democratic candidates for years, the Pennsylvania press buzzed over word Cohen intended to support the re-election of Republican Gov. Corbett in 2014. In January alone, Cohen and his wife raised $200,000 for Corbett at a single fundraiser, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Cohen told the newspaper he has had a long-term relationship with Obama, dating to when Obama was a state senator in Illinois, and a 20-year relationship with Vice President Biden.

“I know them personally, like and respect them, and believed that they were the superior choice,” Cohen said.

Stop the Cap! has developed a sample e-mail message Georgia residents can use to petition the state legislature to vote NO on H.B. 282, the latest Big Telecom corporate welfare bill to kill competition from publicly-owned broadband networks. With thanks to Mark Creekmore, one of many rural Georgians suffering with DSL “service” from Windstream Communications, we have jointly created this letter to illustrate the folly of this bad bill. We may need to send this to members of the state Senate as well.

We realize many of you are served by AT&T, Comcast, or other rural providers, so this letter should be tailored to include the horror stories that you have experienced with your own provider. Make sure you change the relevant sections, including references to your local town’s provider (things that should be changed in your letter are highlighted in blue below) before sending your e-mail to House members today:

Dear Rep. -or- Sen.  [insert name]

I am writing to tell you that I do not support H.B. 282 — the Broadband Municipalities Act, and neither should you.

This proposed legislation is a solution in search of a problem. No community I know of gets interested in entering the broadband business on a whim. But when you live in a rural area served by a single provider that delivers poor service, as I do, it becomes understandable why some communities seek a public broadband solution as a last resort.

At its core, this is a bill designed to protect the broadband status quo at the cost of Georgia’s economic development and its citizens’ need for quality broadband service.

[Share several sentences here detailing the problems you have with your provider.]

Georgia has a long way to go to meet the broadband speeds available in cities like Chattanooga, Tenn. That city’s municipal power company offers 1,000Mbps service to residents that cannot buy those speeds from any other provider. That has attracted companies in this state to move to get the kind of service they just cannot get from our providers. Comcast and AT&T are hardly going out of business in Chattanooga and actually claim to welcome the competition. But things are much worse here in rural Georgia, where just getting 12Mbps service is a real challenge. That is because the local phone company has oversold its network and is too crowded, slowing speeds to a crawl. I’d welcome competition even more, but there just isn’t any.

Consider this: While Dawsonville suffers with Windstream’s oversubscribed DSL service as our only practical option, Thomasville residents can get 22Mbps of service over a fiber to the home network owned by the local community. Rose.net is hardly a financial failure either. It has been so successful, the city eliminated the local property tax. If you pass H.B. 282, Dawsonville will never have a chance, because no other provider is interested in serving us and the local community will never be able to because Windstream arguably already does.

If you believe H.B. 282 will stimulate rural broadband investment, you need to read Windstream CEO Jeff Gardner’s own statements during a February 2013 conference call to investors. He noted Windstream plans to cut capital expenses and investments this year and even more the next, including those made right here in Georgia. Gardner noted that Windstream’s rural customers are largely captive with no competitive alternatives, making extra investment unnecessary. That means we have to live with the service we are lucky enough to get at the high prices we are forced to pay. In effect, we are told to live with what we have or go without. This is an embarrassment to our state which boasts of its high-tech communications capability and is home to several major data centers.

The bill’s logic is also lacking. Private telecom companies enjoy the benefits of state taxpayer dollars in several ways, ranging from access to public rights of way to receiving federal stimulus dollars to incentivize rural broadband expansion. To date, Windstream’s only help for Georgia seems to be wiring 250 homes in Blue Ridge. If local communities decide they need a better broadband solution, allowing out-of-state corporations like Windstream to tie their hands and dictate terms is an outrage. We have been here before in the last century when giant electric utilities refused to provide adequate service in rural Georgia, so those communities managed it themselves with municipal utilities.

It is clear to me, despite a few inadequate revisions to the bill since its introduction, H.B. 282 is a disaster for Georgia’s telecommunications future. It is little more than protectionism for incumbent providers who will continue to treat rural Georgians like second class citizens, delivering service that falls far below what was advertised, yet costing the same as big city folks pay. If my community decides it is essential for our future to do better than what Windstream is willing to offer, making the town work through an expensive qualification process analyzing census blocks is nothing more than a deterrent to keep them from even trying.

With all the problems we face in Georgia today, spending time protecting Windstream from competition is not on my list and it certainly should not be on yours.

I respectfully ask you reject H.B. 282 in full, regardless of current or future revisions. The next time a telecommunications company comes by your office to lobby you on bills like this, let them know the best way they can protect themselves from municipal broadband is to deliver the good service Georgians deserve at a fair price. If they manage that, there would be no demand to build these alternative networks in the first place.

I look forward to hearing your views on this critical matter to me.

Respectfully,

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