Another series of town hall meetings you should try and attend to thank Congressman Massa for his efforts on our behalf:

Thursday, 4/09/09 6:30-8:00 pm
Pittsford Sutherland High School Auditorium
55 Sutherland St
Pittsford, NY 14534

-or-

Friday, 4/10/09 7:30-9:00 pm
Henrietta Fire Dept Training Center
60 Erie Station Road Extension (corner of E. River Road)
Henrietta, NY 14586

KOOP-FM Austin is presenting its award winning “A Neighborly Conversation” program this afternoon to discuss whether Time Warner Cable’s proposed bandwidth caps are good or bad for protecting the citizens of Austin and driving innovation. KOOP has invited two guests: Chip Rosenthal, Chair City of Austin Technology and Telecommunications Commission and Chris Boyd, owner of Midas Networks, a local internet services company.

The show ran Wednesday afternoon from 12-1pm CDT.   Thanks to our reader Brad who shared this news with us.

We liveblogged the event in the comments section.  I will post a link to the archived show when it is available so you can listen again.

Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY) 25th Congressional District Map

Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY), who represents New York’s 25th district (which includes eastern Monroe county), will be holding an open Town Hall meeting this Thursday at 6:00pm.

If you are interested in appealing to Congressman Maffei to work on the issue of broadband usage caps, and to ask him to support Congressman Massa’s efforts, please consider attending, especially if you reside in his district.

The meeting will take place at the Irondequoit Town Hall, 1280 Titus Avenue.

You can also contact Rep. Maffei’s local office to speak on this issue, even if you cannot attend. Calling is the most effective way to draw attention to an issue of concern. Writing/faxing a letter is second. E-Mailing is better than nothing, but most congressional offices are swamped with e-mail, and it can be less effective in measuring what hot button issues are most important in a district. Take a few minutes and call.

Irondequoit Office
1280 Titus Avenue
Rochester, NY 14617
Phone: 585-336-7291
Fax: 585-336-7274

Thanks for the tremendous support from folks not just here in Rochester, but also in the other cities dealing with this. I am overwhelmed with the excellent ideas, suggestions, and responses and am going to begin bringing them together so we can begin work on several different fronts. I will be personally getting back to many of you asking if you can help head up some of these efforts. This absolutely will need to be a group endeavor, and I’d also like to have others writing articles here and helping to keep each other up to date.

I have a major article to write next about alternatives people in Rochester at least can find, but I’m hunting around for options in other affected cities as well. We’ll begin a mass exodus from Road Runner well before there are any usage caps, if only to let them know as customers we feel abused, taken for granted, and outraged over this naked attempt to profiteer. And we’ll be coordinating a public list of those specifically leaving for this reason.

Then, we’re going to get involved in two additional fronts:

– Public policy initiatives to start looking at legislative or regulatory approaches to market abuse;
– Sending gifts and flowers to Verizon corporate begging them to either invade Rochester or write a check from petty cash and buy out Frontier if they are incapable of competing on a level comparable to what Verizon is providing across the rest of the state.

And we’ll be partnering with other websites that are also working on this issue, particularly in places like Austin where the outrage over this action is growing with the same intensity it is here in upstate New York. Stay tuned!

Frontier Communications CEO Maggie Wilderotter told attendees of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners committee on telecommunications that rural residents and small businesses deserve better broadband service than they currently receive, and there is a digital divide between rural and urban communities across America.

Wilderotter’s company, Frontier Communications, is the nation’s second largest independent telephone company, focusing on providing service in rural communities formerly served by mom and pop or community-owned telephone operations.

Frontier provides 90% of its customers with at least low speed DSL broadband service, which is available to the majority of the company’s 2.4 million customers.  Frontier’s basic DSL service provides around 1.5Mbps, although some customers closer to telephone company switch facilities can achieve speeds closer to 3Mbps.  Frontier also serves some urban areas, such as metropolitan Rochester, New York with a DSL product that in some instances can achieve close to 10Mbps.

Frontier’s rural DSL service is designed to reach residences and small businesses with what is often their only choice for broadband service, Wilderotter explained to the audience as part of her keynote speech.

The company’s efforts to “bridge the digital divide” have relied mostly on making due with existing copper wire telephone facilities, and attempting to provide service over extended distances, common in more rural communities.  Although customers have often been grateful for the opportunity of getting something beyond dial-up access or obscenely expensive satellite broadband, Frontier’s rural service is often expensive and slow.  The company has been successful in attracting customers with promotions, including a “free” Dell Netbook, in return for a $45 shipping/processing fee and a commitment by the customer to sign up for telephone and broadband service for a minimum two year service commitment.  The company also offers a video bundle promotion, providing DISH Network satellite television at a discount for the first year of service.

Frontier’s broadband division has been one of the company’s major bright spots, attracting subscriber growth even while the company continues to lose wired telephone line business to the competition.  That drives broadband development in Frontier service areas, although customers seeking “cutting edge” services with faster and more consistent speed will need to look elsewhere.

Wilderotter also addressed the need to find ways to serve the remaining 10% of customers who lack broadband service because they are in a remote location, too far away from the telephone switch office to provide reliable service.

She told the audience Frontier would aggressively seek broadband stimulus funding to help underwrite the costs of providing service to these customers.  But she also called for an overhaul to the Universal Service Fund, a fee charged on every telephone subscriber’s bill designed to subsidize telephone service in more rural communities where the cost of providing service for each customer can be dramatically higher.  Wilderotter proposes that the USF now devote some of its resources to funding broadband buildouts in the nation’s rural areas, instead of diverting large sums to large national phone companies that exploit loopholes, she says.

“Those who serve rural America need the funding that will allow us to continue to expand broadband service and capacity.”