Oman has declared an all-out war on the digital divide, with the country’s broadband provider pledging every citizen will have broadband access within four years, using any means necessary.

With around 50% of the population living in Muscat, the capital of the Arabian Gulf nation, Oman has a pervasive rural broadband problem. The country is hurrying to rid itself of aging copper wire phone infrastructure, replacing it largely with fiber optics, which will reach 80% of the population by 2020. The absolute monarchy that rules Oman has made it clear it considers broadband service an essential utility, as important as electricity and clean water.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, who has led the nation since 1970, decreed Oman must gradually create a knowledge-based economy, particularly as dependence on fossil fuel revenue is expected to diminish during the 21st century. Sultan Qaboos has presided over the Vision 2020 plan, which seeks to cultivate Oman’s information and communication technology economy.

To accomplish this, every inch of the sultinate must have access to fast broadband speeds.

Talib Al Rashadi, business relations manager at Oman Broadband, made it clear he intends to bring Internet access through fiber optics, wireless service, and even satellite to the remotest sections of the country.

“The speed that we used to have one year ago was not more than 20 or 25Mbps,” said Al Rashidi. “Today, we have speeds of 100 to 150Mbps and even gigabit speeds. This is a very high speed, which enables some other applications, such as smart cities, smart governance and others.”

But that is just the beginning. By 2018, all major population centers of other governorates outside of Muscat will be covered with fiber to the home service. Oman is widely expected to pass the United States and Canada in broadband performance and coverage within the next four years. But it will need to do something about the cost of service to be recognized as a true world leader. An unlimited 60Mbps broadband line costs the equivalent of $156 a month. Although many Omanis’ enjoy a high standard of living, broadband at that price remains expensive.

Stop the Cap! reader Geoff W. lives in Liberty Township, Ohio — 35 miles east of Columbus, the state capital. But he might as well live in Cuba, because High Speed Internet is a digital pipe dream for him and his immediate neighbors. Despite living just a few houses away from other Time Warner Cable customers, the cable giant has quoted him $31,885 to install broadband service at his home.

A Time Warner Cable representative told Geoff the thirty grand plus would cover installing 531 feet of overhead cable, 1,800 feet of underground coaxial cable, and three pole permits.

“It’s time to consider High Speed Internet access a utility,” Geoff said.

The long wait for fiber optic broadband in the city of Boston is finally over.

In a surprise announcement with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and Verizon officials, Verizon announced it will commit to at least $300 million in investments over the next six years to bring fiber to the home service to residents of the metro area.

Construction of the fiber-optic network will be completed on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis according to customer demand. Initially, the project will begin in Dorchester, West Roxbury and the Dudley Square neighborhood of Roxbury in 2016, followed by Hyde Park, Mattapan, and other areas of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. The city has also agreed to provide an expedited permitting process to encourage the project.

“Boston is moving faster than our current infrastructure can support, and a modern fiber-optic communications platform will make us a next-level city,” Walsh said in a statement.

“This transformation isn’t just about advanced new fiber-optic technology — it’s about the innovative services this platform will allow people to create and use, today and in the future,” Verizon Wireline Network president Bob Mudge said in a statement.

Bringing FiOS inside the city of Boston will challenge the de facto monopoly Comcast had held for years. The only alternative most residents have is Verizon DSL.

The dramatic turnaround came six months after Verizon adamantly told the Boston City Council Verizon FiOS expansion was dead. Verizon announced it would stop FiOS expansion in 2010 to concentrate on its existing FiOS commitments and better marketing the service to attract more customers.

The sudden end to FiOS expansion six years ago caught many cities by surprise. As a result, in several areas, the fiber service is only available in select suburbs and not city centers.

Verizon’s unions have also pushed for further FiOS expansion, but today’s announcement is expected to have no impact on plans by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to strike Verizon starting early Wednesday morning.

The partnership also covers Verizon Wireless and its plans to attach wireless equipment to city street lights and utility poles without a lengthy permitting process.

Verizon was also likely offered a much easier time securing a license to offer cable television service, a stumbling block Verizon has experienced in several large cities.

Echoing Google Fiber, Verizon will try to win itself some free marketing and buzz by giving residents a chance to compete to see what neighborhoods get FiOS first. A free online registration process will be used to assess demand and help Verizon prioritize its fiber-optic network construction schedule.

Verizon will also support digital initiatives for the income-challenged, including a $100,000 Digital Equity contribution to the city, offered to support a mobile hotspot lending program at the Boston Public Library enabling Internet access to families on an as-needed basis.

Boston neighborhoods marked “A” will be upgraded to FiOS first, followed by “B” and so on. The upgrade effort is expected to take at least six years.

Three years after we first covered this story, getting Time Warner to honor your rebate request is still like pulling teeth.

One of the most frequent complaints we hear about Time Warner Cable is the company’s unwillingness to honor its rebate offers.

In the last five years, Stop the Cap! has received at least 50 complaints from consumers who were told they qualified for $200-300 in rebates, only to never receive them. A story from Raleigh’s WTVD-TV this week illustrates the problem has not gone away.

Alex Dydula was convinced to give up 15 years of satellite television to sign up with Time Warner Cable. The company’s ongoing $300 Visa card rebate offer sweetened the deal.

Except he never got the gift card, just a Time Warner Cable runaround:

“You qualify for a $300 Visa card, all you have to do is wait for the redemption code to come in the mail,” Alex said he was told by a rep.

Alex says he followed the instructions that the rep gave him in order to get the $300.00 Visa card.

“We waited for the redemption code, it never came,” Alex said.

With no redemption code, Alex went online and did an online chat with a TWC rep and through the chat was informed how to register for the reward. Alex also called Visa.

“‘Yeah you qualify, you should get this. I’ll take care of it for you,'” he said.

Alex kept waiting.

“Only to get a call back from the Visa rewards folks to say ‘you don’t qualify. You don’t have the right package, the wrong codes are in the system. I don’t care, I can’t do anything,'” he said he was told by a rep who handles the reward program.

Stop the Cap! has reported on Time Warner’s rebate offers since 2013, and the company has done little to address the concerns of customers who felt cheated out of the rebate for reasons that seem to shift with the desert sands:

• You are ineligible
• The promotion is over
• The agent wasn’t authorized to offer us the promotion
• There is no record of the offer

Just a sample of Time Warner’s terms and conditions.

The rules for Time Warner’s rebate programs are byzantine and missing even one of them, or negotiating certain discounts or service credits that cut the cost of your package can invalidate the offer. But the only way you find out is after your submission is rejected and the rebate program has ended.

1. Time Warner Cable customers qualified for a rebate must first wait for a “rebate redemption code” to arrive, typically two weeks after installing or upgrading service. But most customers complaining about rebate problems report they never received the code. You may be able to find it from Time Warner’s rebate website.
2. With code in hand, customers are qualified to register for the reward on the company’s rebate website. But since Time Warner requires the rebate to be submitted within 30 days of installation, that two-week wait for a “redemption code” may leave customers with as little as 14 days to register.
3. Customers are then required to maintain and pay on time for cable service for at least three months. Even one late payment can invalidate the rebate.
4. After 90 days of service and on time payments, the company will start processing the rebate application, which takes an extra 1-2 months.
5. The rebate card should arrive in your mailbox within 14 days after mailing.

This year, promotions vary depending on your location and the conditions under which you were offered a rebate. We have learned there are rebate programs for “win-back” promotions that convince customers not to switch to another provider, but only under certain conditions. It is easy for customers to apply for the wrong rebate. For example, a current customer will not qualify if they fill out a rebate form intended for customers just signing up for the first time. Other rebate offers apply only in selected geographic areas.

For instance, a $300 rebate offer targeting broadband-only customers who agree to buy a Triple Play bundle of services at $89 or higher is only valid if they are in California, New York City, the Hudson Valley or New Jersey.

If you are not disqualified already, there are many other ways to run afoul of the offer:

• Existing customers with any level of video service are not eligible;
• You must prove you had/have video service with another provider or you are not eligible;
• Online only video services are not eligible;
• Customers who don’t maintain fully paid-up service for at least 90 days are not eligible;
• Customers who don’t register for the rebate within 30 days of installation are not eligible;
• Customer names and addresses must exactly match with both the old provider and Time Warner or you are not eligible;
• Customers complain more than 60 days after of the end of the promotion about missing rebate cards or eligibility problems will not be considered.

If you do not use the card quickly, service fees kick in after five months, except the terms and conditions note that some cards may be pre-activated as much as two months before they were mailed, giving you only 90 days to spend the money before a $2.50 monthly service fee begins. Replacement fees also apply if the card fails to work, is lost or stolen. We recommend immediately using the card at a grocery store for a few weeks or buy something like Amazon gift cards, which do not expire and carry no service fees. The longer you leave the card lying around, the higher the chance you will forget about it or find it depleted by arbitrary service fees.

A very active thread on Time Warner Cable’s discussion forum features more than five pages of complaints about missing rebates.

If you are affected by a missing or rejected rebate, the easiest way to resolve it is to ask Time Warner Cable to convert it into a $300 service credit instead. The alternative is waiting as Time Warner officials tell the third-party rebate processor to override a rebate rejection, which can cause delays lasting weeks. Getting $300 off your cable bill is much easier and faster. You can appeal directly to the Office of the President of Time Warner Cable by filling out this contact form or filing a complaint against your nearest Time Warner Cable office with the Better Business Bureau. Your goal is to speak to a senior customer specialist authorized to grant your $300 credit request. Either method should work.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WTVD Raleigh NC Time Warner Cable deal gives Raleigh man the runaround 4-8-16.flv[/flv]

An “I-Team” reporter for WTVD-TV helps a Raleigh man get the $300 rebate he was originally promised by Time Warner Cable. (2:08)

After ten months of informational picketing and on-the-job protests for a new contract agreement, nearly 40,000 Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia will go on strike starting at 6:00am Wednesday, April 13 if a settlement cannot be reached.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) argue Verizon has dropped the ball on customers and employees, refusing to negotiate in good faith and not investing in better broadband and phone service for millions of its customers.

The two unions are among the strongest proponents of forcing Verizon to further expand its FiOS fiber-to-the-home service, which has been effectively on hold for several years as the company pours resources into its vastly more profitable wireless division – Verizon Wireless.

In addition to refusing further upgrades, unions accuse Verizon of gutting job protection, outsourcing an increasing amount of work, freezing pensions, closing call centers, and offshoring jobs to Mexico and the Philippines. While customers endure months-long phone outages and poor DSL broadband service Verizon has only grudgingly improved, the company made $39 billion in profits over the last three years, and $1.8 billion in profits over the first three months of this year. But it won’t spend the money on expanding FiOS or its workers.

Trainor

“The company’s greed is disgusting. [CEO] Lowell McAdam made $18 million last year—more than 200 times the compensation of the average Verizon employee,” the CWA said in a statement. “Verizon’s top five executives made $233 million over the last five years. Last year alone, Verizon paid out $13.5 billion in dividends and stock buybacks to shareholders. But they claim they can’t afford a fair contract.”

The union says Verizon’s priorities are all wrong.

“It’s not just workers who are getting screwed,” the CWA wrote. “Verizon has $35 billion to invest in the failing internet company, Yahoo, but refuses to maintain its copper network, let alone build FiOS in underserved communities across the region. And even where it’s legally committed to building FiOS out for every customer, Verizon refuses to hire enough workers to get the job done right or on time.”

“We’re standing up for working families and standing up to Verizon’s corporate greed,” said CWA District 1 vice president Dennis Trainor. “If a hugely profitable corporation like Verizon can destroy the good family supporting jobs of highly skilled workers, then no worker in America will be safe from this corporate race to the bottom.”

Members of CWA District 1/Local 13500.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been a close ally of the CWA and has supported the union’s fight with Verizon. The CWA has returned the favor, encouraging the Vermont senator to stay in the race against Hillary Clinton.

Verizon workers complain they are being treated like servants by the company.

“Verizon is already turning people’s lives upside down by sending us hundreds of miles from home for weeks at a time, and now they want to make it even worse,” said Dan Hylton, a technician and CWA member in Roanoke, Va., who’s been with Verizon for 20 years. “Technicians on our team have always been happy to volunteer after natural disasters when our customers needed help, but if I was forced away from home for two months, I have no idea what my wife would do. She had back surgery last year, and she needs my help. I just want to do a good job, be there for my family, and have a decent life.”

A strike could have a significant effect on service calls and maintenance of Verizon’s infrastructure, particularly its deteriorating copper wire network still in service across much of its territory outside of the largest cities in the northeast and mid-Atlantic region. Particularly vulnerable areas include upstate New York, Maryland, suburban and rural Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and western Virginia.

Verizon recently completed a sale of its landline service areas in Florida, California, and Texas to Frontier Communications, and these three states will not be affected by a walkout.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CWA Verizon Poster Child for Corporate Greed 4-2016.mp4[/flv]

The CWA released this ad depicting the income disparity between average Verizon workers and its CEO. (30 seconds)