Tomorrow is election day in the United States. Stop the Cap! has reviewed both presidential candidates’ positions (or the lack thereof) as well as the past voting records and platforms of members of both major political parties. With this in mind, it is time for our election guide for broadband enthusiasts. Regardless of what candidate you support, please get out and vote!

Neither political party or candidate has been perfect on broadband advocacy or consumer protection.

We’ve been disappointed by the Obama Administration, whose FCC chairman has major problems standing up to large telecom companies and their friends in the Republican-led House of Representatives. Julius Genachowski promised a lot and delivered very little on broadband reform policies that protect both consumers and the open Internet. Both President Obama and Genachowski’s rhetoric simply have not matched the results.

Bitterly disappointing moments included Genachowski’s cave-in on Net Neutrality, leaving watered down net protections challenged in court by some of the same companies that praised Genachowski’s willingness to compromise. Genachowski’s thank you card arrived in the form of a lawsuit. His unwillingness to take the common sense approach of defining broadband as a “telecommunications service” has left Internet policies hanging by a tenuous thread, waiting to be snipped by the first D.C. federal judge with a pair of sharp scissors. But even worse, the FCC chairman’s blinders on usage caps and usage billing have left him unbelievably naive about this pricing scheme. No, Mr. Genachowski, usage pricing is not about innovation, it’s about monetizing broadband usage for even fatter profits at the expense of average consumers already overpaying for Internet access.

Obama

Unfortunately, the alternative choice may be worse. Let’s compare the two parties and their candidates:

The Obama Administration treats broadband comparably to alternative energy. Both deliver promise, but not if we wait for private companies to do all of the heavy lifting. The Obama Administration believes Internet expansion needs government assistance to overcome the current blockade of access for anyone failing to meet private Return On Investment requirements.

While this sober business analysis has kept private providers from upsetting investors with expensive capital investments, it has also allowed millions of Americans to go without service. The “incremental growth” argument advocated by private providers has allowed the United States’ leadership role on broadband to falter. In both Europe and Asia, even small nations now outpace the United States deploying advanced broadband networks which offer far higher capacity, usually at dramatically lower prices. Usually, other nations one-upping the United States is treated like a threat to national security. This time, the argument is that those other countries don’t actually need the broadband networks they have, nor do we.

The Obama Administration bows to the reality that private companies simply will not invest in unprofitable service areas unless the government helps pick up the tab. But those companies also want the government to spend the money with as little oversight over their networks as possible.

That sets up the classic conflict between the two political parties — Democrats who want to see broadband treated like a critically-important utility that deserves some government oversight in its current state and Republicans who want to leave matters entirely in the hands of private providers who they claim know best, and keep the government out of it.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s regular cave-ins for the benefit of Big Telecom brought heavy criticism from us for his “cowardly lion” act.

Just about the only thing the two parties agree on is reforming the Universal Service Fund, which had until recently been directing millions to keeping traditional phone service up and running even as Americans increasingly abandon landlines.

But differences quickly emerge from there.

The Obama Administration believes broadband is increasingly a service every American must be able to access if sought. The Romney-Ryan campaign hasn’t spoken to the issue much beyond the general Republican platform that market forces will resolve virtually any problem when sufficient demand arises.

Republicans almost uniformly vociferously oppose Net Neutrality, believing broadband networks are the sole property of the providers that offer the service. Many Republicans characterize Net Neutrality as a “government takeover” of the Internet and a government policy that would “micromanage broadband” like it was a railroad. Somehow, they seem to have forgotten railroad monopolies used to be a problem for the United States in the early 20th century. Robber barons, anyone?

President Obama pushed for strong Net Neutrality protections for Americans, but his FCC chairman Julius Genachowski caved to the demands of AT&T, Verizon, and the cable industry by managing Net Neutrality with a disappointing “light touch” for those providers. (We’d call it “fondling” ourselves.)

Democrats favor wireless auctions and spectrum expansion, but many favor limits that reserve certain spectrum for emerging competitors and for unlicensed wireless use. Republicans trend towards “winner take all” auctions which probably will favor deep-pocketed incumbents like AT&T and Verizon. The GOP also does not support holding back as much spectrum for unlicensed use.

Republicans have been strongly supporting the deregulation of “special access” service, critical to competitors who need backhaul access to the Internet sold by large phone companies like AT&T. Critics contend the pricing deregulation has allowed a handful of phone companies to lock out competitors, particularly on the wireless side, with extremely high prices for access without any pricing oversight. The FCC under the Obama Administration suspended that deregulation last summer, a clear sign it thinks current pricing is suspect.

Romney

Opponents of usage-based pricing of Internet access have gotten shabby treatment from both parties. Republicans have shown no interest in involving themselves in a debate about the fairness of usage pricing, but neither have many Democrats.

As for publicly-owned broadband networks, sometimes called municipal broadband, the Republican record on the state and federal level is pretty clear — they actively oppose community broadband networks and many have worked with corporate front groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to ban them on the state level. Democrats tend to be more favorable, but not always.

The biggest problem broadband advocates face on the federal and state level is the ongoing pervasive influence of Big Telecom campaign contributions. While politicians uniformly deny that corporate money holds any influence over their voting, the record clearly indicates otherwise. Nothing else explains the signatures from Democrats that received healthy injections of campaign cash from companies like AT&T, and then used the company’s own talking points to oppose Net Neutrality.

But in a story of the lesser of two-evils, we cannot forget AT&T spends even more to promote Republican interests, because often those interests are shared by AT&T:

• AT&T has spent nearly $900,000 on self-identified “tea party” candidates pledged to AT&T’s deregulation policies;
• AT&T gave nearly $2 million to the Republican Governors Association — a key part of their ALEC agenda;
• AT&T gave $100,000 to everyone’s favorite dollar-a-holler Astroturf group — The Heartland Institute, which opposes Net Neutrality and community broadband.

Verizon’s flooded headquarters on West St., lower Manhattan (The Wall Street Journal)

As cleanup efforts continue across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, some of America’s largest telecommunications companies are coming under increased scrutiny for being caught flat-footed after Hurricane Sandy roared across the tri-state region, causing damage Verizon’s chief technology officer now admits is worse than 9/11.

As of this morning, Verizon Wireless’ network is reportedly straining, particularly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where cell service that worked immediately after the storm is now increasingly failing.

Verizon said 94% of its cell sites were operational after the storm, but some local officials in the area believe 94% of Verizon’s wireless network has now failed them when they need it the most.

Many telecom companies, particularly AT&T, are being criticized for excessive secrecy about the ongoing state of their networks post-Sandy. AT&T, which left its customers in the dark about service restoration as late as last night while asking customers to contribute $10 to the American Red Cross, finally mass e-mailed customers a statement devoid of much detail signed by Steve Hodges, president of AT&T’s northeast region.

“Restoring our wireless network is our top priority,” Hodges writes. “The vast majority of our cell sites in the Northeast are online and working. We are working issues in areas that were especially hard-hit, where flooding, power loss, transportation and debris all pose challenges. Our crews are working around the clock to restore network service to areas that were impacted by the storm. We will not stop until we repair all of the damage to our network and restore service back to its full capacity.”

The Federal Communications Commission correctly predicted the situation with mobile phones could get worse before it gets better, as backup power wears down and flooding persists. At a press conference held yesterday, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski revealed at least a quarter of all cell sites in areas damaged by Sandy were not operational. Those numbers were less optimistic that those provided by carriers.

The FCC this week activated the Disaster Information Reporting System, a central reporting point for telecommunications companies to update the agency regarding outages and other service disruptions. The FCC also alerted providers that in emergency circumstances, they can assist companies getting fuel for generators and help locate portable cell tower equipment for companies caught unaware.

AT&T’s belated letter to customers affected by Hurricane Sandy

Some may need the help.

New York State Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz both reported Verizon Wireless’ outages are worsening in Brooklyn and midtown Manhattan.

Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today told Sen. Chuck Schumer the federal agency will reimburse New York for 100 percent of the costs incurred restoring power across the storm areas. But that may not expedite how quickly power returns.

Power restoration is expected to bring most cell towers back online. Worsening service is being attributed to battery backup or generator equipment exhausting on-hand fuel supplies, which usually keeps service up and running for up to three days. That means cell towers without power and unreachable by workers will have begun failing late Wednesday into today.

Damage assessments are further behind in New Jersey, the state that took the worst impact from Hurricane Sandy.

Stop the Cap! obtained some new figures from cell phone companies regarding the state of their networks:

• Verizon: Still holding to 94% operational in storm areas;
• AT&T: Declined to comment except to say “the vast majority” of their network is operational;
• T-Mobile: 80% operational in NYC, 90% operational in Washington, D.C.
• Sprint: 75% operational

[flv width=”384″ height=”228″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WSJ Verizon Offices Damaged 11-1-12.mp4[/flv]

Verizon’s critical network takes another hit. “We’ve been here before,” says one Verizon executive, referring to the destruction from the 9/11 terrorist attacks which severely damaged the same facility on West Street now flooded out. (3 minutes)

Our readers report that cell service becomes spotty to non-existent in coastal New Jersey and Connecticut. In Manhattan anywhere south of 29th Street, readers report almost no signals at all.

Verizon’s damaged facilities include those on West and Broad Streets in Manhattan (circled).

Residents are trading tips about “magic spots” where cell service does suddenly pop up, and Gizmodo notes the only place in Alphabet City (the east side in southern Manhattan) to get service is on literally one street corner, where crowds congregate to make and receive calls.

The other salve for telecom withdrawal is the nearest pay phone.

Amusing stories of 20-somethings waiting in long lines only to be confounded by unfamiliar pay phones are appearing in the New York media. One radio station even aired basic instructions for members of the Millennial Generation that have never heard of inserting coins into telephones.

The biggest challenge for the city’s pay phone vendors is clearing them of coin overloads, something unheard of before the storm.

The often maligned pay phone has exposed the limits of the “more advanced” and expensive networks that were supposed to replace them. Despite claims of superiority for wireless service, northeast residents have once again discovered it has its limits:

• They don’t work during major weather events that knock out power and limit access to maintain backup generators;
• Cell networks are less capable of handling large call volumes, a problem made worse when cell phone refugees in other areas seek out remaining cell signals, further congesting the network;
• Wireless is just as susceptible to wireline or fiber failures on the ground. Cell towers typically connect to providers through wired backhaul circuits, which knock out cell service if they fail;
• Cell phone users need power to recharge their power-hungry smartphones. Batteries drain even faster searching for a weak or non-existent cell signal;

Hardest hit remains Verizon, which allowed reporters access inside damaged facilities to help New Yorkers better understand the scope of the problem.

[flv width=”384″ height=”228″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WSJ Wireless Network Outages 11-1-12.mp4[/flv]

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the state of the wireless communications networks across the northeastern U.S. and when service will be back.  (4 minutes)

Eleven years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that took out Verizon’s West Street office when buildings collapsed at the nearby World Trade Center, Verizon is likely going to have to re-learn some lessons about catastrophe management as flood waters recede.

Verizon has deployed this 53-foot Emergency Mobile Communications Center for use by the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management that provides Internet and phone service.

The Wall Street Journal was able to obtain access inside the damaged facilities, and the reporter covering the event was left somewhat stunned by the scope of the damage.

In the middle of organized, yet chaotic recovery efforts was Verizon’s chief technology officer Tony Melone who had seen enough to declare the damage worse than 9/11.

The pictures of several feet of muddy water from the nearby Hudson River covering the lobby of the company’s headquarters on West Street said it all. The mostly salt water was an unwelcome guest in Verizon’s building, especially considering the five level basement below the lobby contains critical cables and telecommunications equipment. Almost four of those basement floors were completely flooded. After the water was pumped out, dampness and leaves from nearby trees remain littered on the floor.

One lesson learned after 9/11 was not to place critical phone switches below ground level. After reconstruction, the switches were moved to a higher floor and consequently were left undamaged. But while Verizon moved its backup generators upstairs, it left the pumps and fuel tanks that power them in the basement — leaving them inoperable.

This morning, passersby on West Street have to step around Verizon’s network of generators now running outside of the building, right next to large temporary fuel tanks to power them.

Verizon central offices in other parts of Manhattan, particularly further southeast on Broad Street, were never upgraded and are in worse shape, with electrical equipment damaged perhaps beyond repair. The force of the water was strong enough to bend the 86 year-old steel and bronze doors. Workers there are still trying to get water out of the building, shoving a pipe down an elevator shaft to facilitate pumping.

Verizon has some redundancy built into its network to protect its most valuable customers. That kept the landline phones working at the New York Stock Exchange, even though other landline and wireless customers will have  to wait longer for service to resume.

AT&T’s generator staging area near Meriden, Connecticut. (Credit: Brian Pernicone)

Some critics of the increasingly concentrated telecommunications landscape think Verizon and other companies have still not learned enough to prevent the kinds of service disruptions that will leave some customers without service for weeks.

It is hard to miss the bustle outside of Verizon’s offices damaged by the storm, watching flood water drain down the street. But things are murkier at cell phone providers who have been less than forthcoming about specific outage information and service restoration assessments.

Some have advocated the federal government step in and require cell phone service, now deemed essential by an increasing number of Americans, be protected with robust backup solutions to keep service up and running after catastrophic weather events.

After Hurricane Katrina, the FCC in 2007 tried to issue new rules that required a minimum of eight hours of backup power for all cell sites. The industry balked, predicting it would lead to “staggering and irreparable harm” for the cell companies. One wireless trade association warned their members might take several cell sites down if they were forced to provide backup power.

The CTIA Wireless Association and Sprint-Nextel sued the agency in federal court and the Bush Administration’s Office of Management and Budget eventually killed the proposed regulations.

T-Mobile and AT&T have cut an emergency deal to share their cellphone networks in areas affected by Superstorm Sandy. They’re trying to make it a little easier for customers to get a signal as carriers restore their networks. Some say companies should be forced to make their networks more resilient. National Public Radio’s Morning Edition has the story. (November 1, 2012) (3 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip, or you can download the clip and listen later.

Copps

Americans need to stand up and say “no” to more telecom mergers and lobbying efforts that push for additional deregulation and corporate protectionism in the telecommunications sector. Unfortunately, we are in for a fight, thanks to Washington’s problem disappointing a multi-billion industry that lavishly finances political campaigns, conventions, and vacation outings.

Michael Copps, former commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from 2001-2011 and acting chairman for the first six months of the Obama Administration ought to know.

“The consolidated world of telecom broadband did not evolve from the hand of God, the mysterious workings of natural law, or the inevitability of market-based dynamics,” Copps wrote in his essay, “Why Give Up on Competition?” “It was enabled by conscious decision-making at the federal level, largely through the abdication of its oversight responsibilities by the Federal Communications Commission over the better part of 30 years.”

In short, it did not have to turn out this way, no matter what the telecom industry and their astroturf friends have to say.

“Go to just about any telecom conference these days, and some industry maven will make the case that restoring competition to the telecom world is so 1990s,” Copps writes. “Why don’t we all just recognize the inevitable, they ask: telecom is a natural monopoly, competition is a chimera, and the sooner we flash a steady green light for more industry consolidation and less government oversight, the better off we’ll all be.”

Provider-backed ALEC advocates for the corporate interests that fund its operations.

Too many in Washington are already true believers, according to Copps, and the result is two companies controlling over 2/3rds of the wireless marketplace and a broadband duopoly for most Americans. This did not happen overnight. Enormous and expensive lobbying campaigns run for over a decade have convinced lawmakers that less is more when it comes to telecom regulation and oversight. Regulators ringing alarm bells about deregulation without sufficient competition have been picked off, says Copps, by the telecom industry-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has convinced at least 19 state legislatures to wipe away authority from state public service commissions that for years have been trying to protect consumers and preserve competition.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was originally designed to open the telecommunications marketplace to increased competition, but also ensure a level playing field for competitors by charging the FCC to implement and enforce strong rules to keep incumbent telecommunications companies from steamrolling new competitors.

No surprises here: Michael Powell was FCC chairman during the deregulation frenzy of the first term of George W. Bush. Today, he’s the president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the largest cable industry lobbying group in the country.

With the arrival of President George W. Bush, the new Republican majority at the FCC promptly began obliterating checks and balances at the behest of some of the nation’s largest phone and cable companies. The results:

• Reselling rights and wholesale leasing of facilities to competitors were wiped away, guaranteeing monopoly control of already-established networks;
• Opening up the long distance and local market to Baby Bell competition with their promise they would compete nationwide failed. Like Big Cable, the Baby Bells sold local and long distance only to their own customers, not to those located in another Baby Bell’s service area;
• Instead of competing, phone companies simply bought each other. “As soon as one transaction was approved, another one came through the door,” Copps reported. “Sometimes it seemed like the merger approval business was our only business.”;
• ” The FCC voted, over the strenuous objections of Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and me, to remove advanced telecommunications (broadband) from the purview of Title II of the Telecommunications Act—where consumer protections, competition, privacy, and public safety are clearly mandated—and placed them instead in the nebulous and uncharted land of Title I, where regulatory authority is uncertain, consumer protections are virtually non-existent, and where the huge companies are better positioned to wreak havoc on the promise of competition,” Copps said.

To right the wrongs, Copps wants some major changes to reignite competition and return to telecom innovation, eliminating the stagnation we have from today’s cozy, barely competitive marketplace:

1. Learn to say “no” to more industry mergers. Consolidation has not brought communications nirvana for consumers, just higher prices and fewer choices, often from a monopoly provider;
2. Encourage innovative approaches like municipal broadband. Copps: “‘My way or nothing’ may be the mantra of the big guys, but that means no broadband in places they don’t wish to serve.” Copps wants to see the federal government pre-empt state bans on public broadband laws provider-backed ALEC has gotten through legislatures across the country;
3. Smarter stewardship of wireless spectrum, including unlicensed spectrum use, shared spectrum, smarter technology, and a “use it or lose it” policy that pulls back unused/warehoused spectrum held by some of the nation’s largest wireless carriers.

AT&T has sent the Federal Communications Commission a bait and switch checklist that, despite the stated purpose of modernizing telecommunications networks, would also allow the company to completely abandon its landline network and win near-complete deregulation of its broadband service.

On Tuesday, August 28, Christopher Heimann and I met with Matthew Berry and Nicholas Degani, respectively Chief of Staff and Legal Advisor to Commissioner Pai, to discuss actions the Commission can and should take to facilitate the retirement of legacy TDM-based networks and services and transition to an IP-based Network/Ecosystem, consistent with federal policies and objectives, including those enunciated in the National Broadband Plan.

At the request of Commissioner Pai, AT&T has prepared and is submitting herewith a checklist of those actions, which identifies the critical first steps the Commission should undertake without delay to begin the transition as well as additional steps that would facilitate completion of that transition.

Under the existing statutory and regulatory framework, carriers already can undertake the steps necessary to make the transition, including, in some cases, steps requiring Commission approval (such as withdrawing legacy TDM-based services). But, insofar as the transition raises a number of novel and likely contentious issues, Commission action on the items included on the attached list would greatly facilitate and thus hasten completion of the transition. The steps we identify implicate an array of issues raised in the above-referenced dockets. Accordingly, we are filing the checklist in each such docket.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert W. Quinn, Jr.

AT&T’s letter and attached checklist are documents only a policy wonk or careful observer of Big Telecom could easily navigate. Despite the thicket of opaque terms like “TDM” and the not-immediately-apparent importance of the difference between an “information service” and a “telecommunications service,” AT&T has, to borrow a phrase from President Obama, some brass ones making its intentions perfectly clear.

With the help of Bruce Kushnick, executive director of New Networks Institute and a former telecom industry insider, we will guide you through AT&T’s filing and what it really means.

AT&T lists several “critical first steps” (we have put them in bold) to achieve the transition to an all-IP telecom world, retiring the traditional “public switched telecommunications network” (PSTN) which you know better as a landline.

1. Establish a date certain for an official TDM-services sunset, after which no carrier would be required to establish and maintain TDM-based services/networks, and purchasers of such services (including circuit-switched and dedicated transmission services) would have to switch to IP or other packet-based services.

No casual observer of FCC filings would be expected to understand the implication of setting a date to officially sunset “TDM services.” TDM is synonymous with the landline network Ma Bell established more than 100 years ago — the one that gives you a dial tone, DSL, and access to dial-up Internet where broadband is unavailable. AT&T wants the FCC to manage what the company has not been able to consistently accomplish on the state level: setting a final date when traditional landline service can be permanently disconnected, preferably at the convenience of the phone company.

2. Clarify that any state requirements forcing service providers to maintain TDM networks and services […] following the TDM sunset are preempted. Such requirements could deter investment in broadband, and thus are inconsistent with and pose an obstacle to federal law and policies encouraging the transition to all IP networks and services.

This provision would effectively eliminate any existing state laws or regulations that require AT&T to deliver a fairly-priced, well-run landline service for customers throughout its service area. Some states have not bought into AT&T’s lobbying juggernaut, often delivered with the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Despite the enormous sums spent lobbying legislators, some states have kept oversight in place requiring AT&T to serve everyone that wants phone service. With this provision, those state laws and regulations would be pre-empted.

AT&T claims state requirements somehow deter broadband investment, a curious conclusion considering AT&T has already largely ceased its expansion of DSL and U-verse services.

3. Complete action in the IP-enabled services proceeding, and classify such services as information services, subject to minimal regulation only at the federal level. The Commission could permit service providers to offer DSL or other broadband transmission services on a common carrier basis if they so choose, but in no event should a provider be required to do so. 

Quinn

This is AT&T’s provision to kill regulation and destroy competition. Government rules, regulations, and oversight apply largely to “PSTN” landline services, not to IP-based or broadband networks. Basic landline service is designated a “telecommunications service” by the FCC, which makes it subject to regulator review. Broadband, on the other hand, and anything else using IP, is typically classified as an “information service,” where most oversight regulations do not apply.

AT&T’s plan is to shut down today’s landline “telecommunications” service in favor of IP-based Voice over IP, which would effectively reclassify your phone line as an “information service.” That means by changing just one word — “telecommunications” to “information” — AT&T can walk away from a century of basic consumer protection rules and regulations. AT&T also gets a divorce from its telecommunications service obligations as a “common carrier,” which requires AT&T to deliver service to any customer who requests it, at a fair and reasonable price, without changing its form or content.

If AT&T’s broadband networks were reclassified as a “telecommunications service,” Net Neutrality would be easy to enforce under the “without changing its form or content” provision of common carrier rules. Back in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, AT&T’s lobbyists had already made their mark, creating new “distinctions” of telecommunications services, some more regulated than others. Now AT&T is back to kill off the last regulatory obligations it still has to endure, taking Net Neutrality to the grave once and for all.

4. Reform Interconnection – after the official date for the TDM sunset, no carrier or other provider of TDM based services should be entitled to require others to interconnect in TDM. The Commission should take action to maintain the market-based, regulation-free interconnection regime that has applied to IP-based interconnection for decades.

[…] Reform wholesale obligations under section 251/271 to eliminate unbundling, resale, collocation and other requirements that could require ILECs to maintain TDM networks and services.

These particularly opaque sections give AT&T’s competitors real nightmares because they would wipe out requirements that phone companies open certain facilities to competitors who deliver services over AT&T’s network. If AT&T’s recommendation is adopted, no competitor would be safe if AT&T eventually padlocks access to its network.

But AT&T does not want its intentions to be that obvious. It throws a transparent bone to regulators to offer a facade of competition in both this and the preceding recommendation.

AT&T instructs the FCC it can mimic the time-honored patina of an open, competitive industry by allowing AT&T’s competitors to sell DSL or other broadband services over AT&T facilities, but only if AT&T feels like it (at comfortable prices that don’t undercut AT&T).

5. Eliminate regulatory underbrush/superstructure that accompanies TDM-based services. For example, phase out equal access, residual ONA/CEI, record-keeping, accounting, guidebook, dialing parity, payphone, and data collection (which should be limited to that which is collected on the Commission’s Form 477) requirements.

AT&T leaving town.

What AT&T calls “underbrush,” consumers and regulators call oversight and consumer protection.

“Sayonara any telco rules, regulations and oh yes, your rights,” says Bruce Kushnick. “Your service breaks… tough. Prices go up and there’s no direct competition — too bad. Networks weren’t upgraded — so what.”

Kushnick notes this provision would allow AT&T to avoid maintaining a public record of its performance (and its potential abusive practices, bad service, and high prices), including any requirement on the state or federal level to tell the public anything about how well we are being served by the wired monopoly.

Other things on AT&T’s hit list: “Equal Access,” which opened the door to competitive long distance calling and lower rates, “Dialing Parity” which lets you avoid dialing ten (or more) digits for every call (or being forced to learn more complicated numbers for things like directory assistance or other shortened dialing numbers), and public payphones. AT&T’s desire to kill off “residual ONA” refers to the costs to establish Open Network Architecture — the framework for opening up the nation’s phone monopoly for competition. Re-establish the monopoly and there is no reason to fret about the costs to maintain access for competitors AT&T will eventually eliminate.

6. Further reform USF to provide support for broadband regardless of the regulatory classification of broadband services, eliminate any obligation to offer such services on a common carriage basis to be eligible for such support, and provide incentives for service providers to invest and offer services necessary to ensure that no one is left behind by the transition to an all-IP, broadband ecosystem.

The reform of the Universal Service Fund has already opened up opportunities for rural telecommunications companies to apply for broadband infrastructure grants to expand broadband in rural America. Only AT&T has refused to participate in the current round of broadband grants because they do not like the rules. AT&T wants a free hand to receive broadband funding, so long as it faces no questions about where the money gets spent. Under AT&T’s recommendation, the company would receive money with no obligation to ensure everyone who wants broadband in rural America can get it. It also wants the government to hand out money to providers to implement their goal of regulatory nirvana — the conversion of basic landline service to Voice over IP, idolized as the golden calf of ultimate deregulation.

But although providers won’t be left behind, consumers might be:

7. Establish/reform rules to facilitate migration of customers from legacy to IP-based services and to prevent customers that procrastinate or fail to migrate from holding up the transition. For example, establish a process for identifying a default service provider if a customer fails to migrate, and/or permit service providers to notify customers that they will be dropped from service as of a date certain if they have not migrated to an alternative service/service provider. 

This particularly arrogant provision would put a stop to Aunt Maude holding up AT&T’s grand plan to live a regulation-free lifestyle. How dare she drag her feet with AT&T’s agenda at stake? If your elderly parents or extended family don’t understand why AT&T is meddling with their landline service and don’t want to change, AT&T has an unsympathetic solution. Under their recommendation, your parents would find themselves with a “default service provider” they might not want to do business with or, even worse, simply leave them with a dead phone line AT&T has no interest in repairing. But AT&T would likely still get their way. In rural areas they already cover, AT&T would be the “default service provider” because it is the only service provider. If Maude wants her phone line back, the only way she will get it is choosing the migration to Voice over IP AT&T intended all along.

AT&T’s language is remarkably frank, but was never intended to be viewed and explained to the public at large. It was the product of a phone company lobbyist talking to a politician, staffer, or regulator that one day could become an employee of that phone company. The only way to stop this cozy relationship is to tell regulators you are watching (and understanding) the game being played here.

One of the rural groups fighting to keep funding for rural broadband networks.

The Republican platform on telecommunications and its criticism of the Obama Administration’s handling of broadband inspired a blogger at the Washington Post to ponder the question, “Whatever happened to Obama’s goal of universal broadband access?”

Brad Plumer sees the Republican criticism as valid, at least on the surface:

Does anyone remember when the Obama administration promised to bring “true broadband [to] every community in America”? The Republican Party definitely does, and its 2012 platform criticizes the president for not making any progress on this pledge:

“The current Administration has been frozen in the past…. It inherited from the previous Republican Administration 95 percent coverage of the nation with broadband. It will leave office with no progress toward the goal of universal coverage—after spending $7.2 billion more. That hurts rural America, where farmers, ranchers, and small business manufacturers need connectivity to expand their customer base and operate in real time with the world’s producers.

So whatever happened to the Obama administration’s plan to expand broadband access, anyway? In one sense, the Republican critics are right. Universal broadband is still far from a reality. According to the Federal Communications Commission’s annual broadband report, released in August, there are still 19 million Americans who lack access to wired broadband. Only about 94 percent of households have broadband access. Obama hasn’t achieved his goal.

Stop the Cap! has been watching the rural broadband debate since the summer of 2008, and believes the failure to do better isn’t primarily the fault of Republicans or Democrats — it lies with the nation’s phone companies — particularly AT&T and Verizon. But both political parties, to different degrees, have helped and hindered along the way.

Plumer slightly misstates the commitment of the Obama Administration at the outset. The Obama-Biden Plan never promised to successfully complete universal broadband access in the United States. Here is their actual pledge (emphasis ours):

Deploy Next-Generation Broadband: Work towards true broadband in every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives. America should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access.

Big Phone Companies Struggle to Abandon Landlines in Rural America

The Obama-Biden Plan for broadband never promised you a rose garden. It simply promised the administration would get to work planting one.

By far, AT&T and Verizon Communications are the most culpable for leaving rural Americans without broadband service. Over the last four years, both companies have diverted investment away from their landline networks into wireless. AT&T has also spent millions lobbying state governments to free itself from the requirement of serving as “the carrier of last resort,” a critical matter for rural landline customers, particularly because rural wireless coverage remains lacking.

In most states, the dominant phone company is still mandated to provide basic telephone service to every customer who wants it. Universal electric and telephone service goes all the way back to the Roosevelt Administration, who saw both as essential to the rural economy.

The Communications Act of 1934 that the Republicans today dismiss as outdated established the concept of universal telephone service: “making available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States a rapid, efficient, nationwide and worldwide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges.”

The concept of universal service was reaffirmed, with the blessing of the telephone companies, under the sweeping deregulation of the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996. Republicans call that law outdated as well.

Rural America Can’t Win Better Broadband If Their Providers Don’t Play

Decided not to participate in rural broadband funding programs.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) with $7.2 billion to expand access to broadband services in the United States. Of those funds, the Act provided $4.7 billion to NTIA to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure, enhance and expand public computer centers, encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service, and develop and maintain a nationwide public map of broadband service capability and availability.

This first round of serious broadband stimulus was designed to help defray the costs of bringing broadband to rural areas where “return on investment” formulas used by large phone companies deemed them insufficiently profitable to service.

Remarkably, America’s largest phone companies declined to participate. In March 2009, AT&T and Verizon delivered their response to the Obama Administration through Bloomberg News:

Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. may have this response to the U.S. government’s offer of $7.2 billion for high-speed Internet projects: Keep it.

Unlike the businesses that welcomed the $787 billion stimulus package approved by Congress last month, the two biggest U.S. phone companies have reservations. They’re urging the government not to help other companies compete with them through broadband grants or to set new conditions on how Internet access should be provided.

The companies have remained noncommittal as they lobby to shape rules for the grants.

“We do not have our hand out seeking government funds,” James Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president, told reporters March 11. While the company is “open to considering things that might help the economy and might help our customers at the same time,” he said AT&T’s primary focus for broadband is its own investment program.

Also declined to participate.

AT&T’s own financial reports illustrate its “investment program” was largely focused on its wireless services division, not rural broadband. Many other phone companies filed objections to projects they deemed invasive to their service areas, whether they actually provided broadband in those places or not.

When the final NTIA grant recipients were announced, the overwhelming majority were middle-mile or institutional broadband networks that would not provide broadband to any home or business.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service managed the rest of the broadband grants and loans, and the majority went to exceptionally rural telephone companies, co-ops, and tribal telecommunications. AT&T did participate in one aspect of broadband stimulus — its legal team and lobbyists appealed to grant administrators to change the rules to be more flexible about how and where grant money was spent.

In the past year, both AT&T and Verizon have signaled their true intentions for rural landline service:

Verizon’s McAdam: Ready to pull the plug on rural landlines.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam: “In […] areas that are more rural and more sparsely populated, we have got [a wireless 4G] LTE built that will handle all of those services and so we are going to cut the copper off there,” McAdam said. “We are going to do it over wireless. So I am going to be really shrinking the amount of copper we have out there and then I can focus the investment on that to improve the performance of it.”

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson: “We have been apprehensive on moving, doing anything on rural access lines because the issue here is, do you have a broadband product for rural America?,” Stephenson told investors earlier this year. “And we’ve all been trying to find a broadband solution that was economically viable to get out to rural America and we’re not finding one to be quite candid.”

More recently, Verizon has nearly disinherited its DSL service, making it more difficult to purchase (impossible in FiOS fiber to the home service areas). In states like West Virginia, it effectively slashed expansion and infrastructure investment as it prepared to exit the state, selling its network to Frontier Communications. AT&T has shown almost no interest expanding the coverage of its DSL service either. If you don’t have access to it today, you likely won’t tomorrow.

A good portion of the broadband stimulus funding provided by the government is actually in the form of low-interest, repayable loans. Despite rhetoric in the Republican platform about supporting public-private partnerships to expand rural broadband, the Republicans in Congress launched coordinated attacks on the Broadband Access Loan Program offered by the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service in the spring of 2011. Various right-wing pundits and pressure groups joined forces with several Republican members of Congress attempting to permanently de-fund the program, starting with $700 million in federally-backed loans in April, 2011. The loans were targeted to public and private rural telecommunications companies attempting to expand or introduce broadband service.

Attacks on the effectiveness of President Obama’s broadband campaign pledges in the Republican platform ring a little hollow when Republican lawmakers actively blocked the administration’s efforts to keep those promises.

Killing Community Broadband: Priority #1 for Providers With the Help of Corporate-Backed ALEC and State Politicians

AT&T’s Stephenson: Doesn’t have a solution for the rural broadband problem, so why try?

Stop the Cap! has repeatedly reported on the challenges of community broadband in the United States. Launched by towns and villages to provide quality broadband service in areas where larger companies have either underserved or delivered no service at all, publicly-owned broadband is often the only chance a community has to stay competitive in the digital age.

That goal is shared by the GOP’s platform, which states how important it is to connect “rural areas so that every American can fully participate in the global economy.”

Unfortunately, unless your local phone or cable company is providing the service, all too often they would prefer communities continue to receive no service at all.

AT&T is among the most aggressive phone companies lobbying state officials, often through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), to pass state laws hindering or banning community broadband development. ALEC supporters, overwhelmingly Republican, accept company-drafted legislation as their own and introduce it in state legislatures, hoping it will become law. Generous campaign contributions often follow.

In the past few years, AT&T and Time Warner Cable have been especially active in broadband backwater states like North and South Carolina and Georgia, where rural counties often receive nothing more than DSL service at speeds that no longer qualify as “broadband” under the Obama Administration’s National Broadband Plan. In North Carolina, Democratic state politicians well funded by Time Warner Cable helped push bills forward, but it took a Republican takeover of the North Carolina legislature to finally get those laws enacted. South Carolina presented fewer challenges for state lawmakers, despite protests from communities across the state bypassed by AT&T and other phone companies.

The efforts to de-fund broadband stimulus and tie the hands of communities seeking their own broadband solutions have done considerable damage to the rural broadband expansion effort.

Universal Service Fund Reform: Not Much Help If America’s Largest Phone Companies Remain Uninterested

The Obama Administration has also kept its pledge to reform the Universal Service Fund, recreating it as the Connect America Fund (CAF) to help wire rural America.

Hopes for rural broadband drowned in the cement pond.

In its first phase of broadband funding, $300 million dollars became available to help subsidize the cost of rural broadband construction. Deemed a “mild stimulus” effort that would test the CAF’s grant mechanisms, only $115 million of the available funding was accepted by the nation’s phone companies — all independent providers like Frontier, FairPoint, CenturyLink, Windstream, and smaller players. Once again, both AT&T and Verizon refused to participate. There is no word yet on whether the two largest phone companies in the country will also effectively boycott the second round of funding, estimated to allocate over $1.8 billion to expand rural broadband.

“Getting to 100 percent is going to be a very difficult long-term goal, given the size of the U.S. landmass and the huge expense to reach those final couple of percentage points,” John Horrigan of the Joint Center Media and Technology Institute told Brad Plumer.

Politics and provider intransigence seem to be getting in the way just as much as America’s vast expanse. Many conservative and provider-backed groups have called America’s claimed 94% broadband availability rate a success story, and don’t see a need to fuss over the remaining six percent that cannot buy the service (and pointing to a larger number that don’t want the service at today’s prices).

Beyond the partisan obstructionism and middle mile/institutional network “successes” that ordinary consumers cannot access, the real issue remains the providers themselves. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink.

It seems as long as AT&T and Verizon treat their rural landline customers as hayseed relatives they (and Wall Street) could do without, the rural broadband picture for customers of AT&T and Verizon will remain bleak at current stimulus levels regardless of which party promises what in their respective platforms.