[1]American Phone Companies Are Literally Letting Their Networks Fall
Apart:
Once as important as the American railroad and electrical grid,
American phone companies aren't quite what they used to be. With the
use of copper-based landlines having plummeted the last few years,
many of the nation's phone companies have understandably attempted
to shift their business models toward new, more profitable sectors
like [2]video advertising.
The problem: many of their aging fixed-line networks were not only
built on the backs of billions in [3]taxpayer subsidies, they're
very much still in use-and for many, slow, expensive DSL is the only
broadband available. But with no local competition and local and
federal oversight eroded by lobbying-many of these companies have
simply stopped caring.
Case in point: Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson last week
released a scathing [4]133-page report highlighting how the state's
incumbent phone company, Frontier Communications, has increasingly
refused to upgrade its aging network, often taking months to make
repairs, putting those with medical conditions at risk.
"The findings of this investigation detail an extraordinary
situation, where customers have suffered with outages of months, or
more, when the law requires telephone utilities to make all
reasonable efforts to prevent interruptions of service," the state
AG said.
"Frontier customers with these outages include those with family
members with urgent medical needs, such as pacemakers monitored by
their medical teams via the customer's landline," said the AG, which
notes Frontier violated more than 35 state laws and rules by failing
to respond to customer repair requests in a reasonable timeframe.
The report, based on data collected from over 1,000 complaints and
half-a-dozen public hearings, provides photographic evidence of the
company's neglected network, including network pedestals left
abandoned to the elements:
Christopher Mitchell is the Director of the Community Broadband
Networks Initiative, which helps local communities explore
connectivity alternatives to apathetic monopolies. Mitchell told me
via email such neglect is routine for companies that don't want to
upgrade aging DSL lines, yet simultaneously [5]lobby for laws
banning towns and cities from building better networks.
"State and federal elected officials have been negligent in allowing
companies like Windstream [another [6]lagging U.S. phone company]
and Frontier-particularly for a business model that is mining a
public safety telephone system for all it is worth-to charge as much
as they can until the network literally rots," Mitchell said.
One problem is that internet voice and VOIP services became more
common in the early aughts, the nation's phone companies used this
surge in voice competition to convince both state and [7]federal
lawmakers meaningful oversight was [8]no longer necessary. Now, for
every state like Minnesota, there's countless states that [9]do
little to nothing about this dysfunction.
The result are companies that can't even technically offer even the
FCC's base definition of "broadband" (25 Mbps), yet often charge the
[10]same or higher prices users in more developed areas pay for
gigabit (1000 Mbps) broadband. All while [11]actively undermining
local community efforts to build better, faster broadband networks.
Mitchell pointed to [12]numerous examples where Frontier executives
and lobbyists have attempted to sue, hinder, or [13]otherwise
hamstring local efforts to bring better service to these
long-neglected areas. If Frontier doesn't want to upgrade its lines,
Mitchell noted, the least it can do is get out of the way of those
looking at creative, local alternatives.
"In 2019, any policy maker that listens to a lobbyist from Frontier
should be held criminally negligent," Mitchell said.
Cable operators certainly appreciate phone companies' apathy.
Consumers with an actual choice in broadband providers are fleeing
to cable [14]at an unprecedented rate. This cable monopoly
(especially at faster speeds) in turn gives cable operators carte
blanche to raise rates, impose [15]arbitrary usage caps, and ignore
their own failures [16]on the customer service front.
And while next-gen wireless networks may provide an additional
competitive option to some of these neglected users in time, we've
discussed at length how wireless [17]isn't going to be a magic
bullet on this front due to geographical limitations, bandwidth
usage restrictions, and high prices.
With neither competition nor government accountability to force its
hand, most American phone companies now operate in an accountability
vacuum. And while users that can flee to alternative options
continue to do so, there's still millions of Americans stuck with
companies making it very clear that actually giving a damn about
paying customers is among their lowest priorities.
(Via [18]Motherboard)
Corporations should be up in arms about this. The amount of redundancy
and resilience in telco providers' networks should trigger all kinds of
alarms around business continuity and disaster recovery planning. And
don't forget, just because you have two telcos doesn't mean they are on
separate infrastructure. I learned this the hard way when I found out
my redundant, path and provider diverse circuits for Western Michigan
were none of the above - it all ran through one legacy card in one
legacy chassis in one un-manned substation. That was not a good Friday,
although it fell on Good Friday.
__________________________________________________________________
My original entry is here: [19]American Phone Companies Are Literally
Letting Their Networks Fall Apart. It posted Thu, 17 Jan 2019 21:16:49
+0000.
Filed under: business,
References
1.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wj3v5n/american-phone-companies-are-literally-letting-their-networks-fall-apart
2.
https://www.thewrap.com/welcome/2141874/single/~go90-failure-just-cost-verizon-658-million~/
3.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ywkn4b/study-throwing-taxpayer-money-at-giant-isps-hasnt-fixed-americas-broadband-problem
4.
http://mn.gov/commerce-stat/pdfs/frontier-service-quality-report-final.pdf
5.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkvn4x/the-21-laws-states-use-to-crush-broadband-competition
6.
https://stopthecap.com/2018/11/20/windstreams-aspirational-broadband-dsl-customers-not-getting-advertised-speed/
7.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171115/11114238623/fcc-moves-to-gut-rules-protecting-broadband-users-telcos-no-longer-want.shtml
8.
https://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/lobbyists-disagree-whether-timing-right-for-iowa-voip-deregulation/article_ee7f0320-5d2e-58a3-a67e-81be42bf466d.html
9.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170606/05202837522/frontier-fires-state-senate-leader-who-also-worked-frontier-supporting-attempts-to-improve-broadband-competition.shtml
10.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/08/50-a-month-for-1mbps-how-att-and-verizon-rip-off-dsl-customers/
11.
https://muninetworks.org/content/connectivity-purgatory-frontier-delays-small-isp’s-fast-network
12.
https://muninetworks.org/content/connectivity-purgatory-frontier-delays-small-isp’s-fast-network
13.
https://stopthecap.com/2018/05/23/conn-regulator-bans-public-broadband-to-protect-comcast-frontier-and-altice-from-competition/
14.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180314/09251639423/cable-industry-is-quietly-securing-massive-monopoly-over-american-broadband.shtml
15.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nz7wjw/why-comcasts-data-caps-arent-about-fairness
16.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xmxza/america-hates-comcast-more-than-ever
17.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59j7v8/the-race-to-5g-is-just-mindless-marketing-bullshit
18.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us
19.
https://www.prjorgensen.com/?p=2534
