FCC: You, AT&T. Get over here and explain this 'no more gigabit fiber' threat The US Federal Communications Commission is calling out AT&T for throwing a hissy-fit over net neutrality and halting its gigabit-a-second fiber rollout. The watchdog said in a letter to AT&T execs that it wants the telco giant to explain why it thinks it will lose money if it expands its fiber broadband network. AT&T said …
Hah, burn! AT&T's been pulling out this odd argument for years, that if they don't get their way they will just take all their toys away and go home. They claimed if the T-Mobile purchase was allowed to go through, they'd be able to extend LTE to reach 95% of POPs (population) but only about 75% without it. Without the T-Mobile merger, they were already at 92% at the beginning of 2014.
So, trying the same argument, the FCC's calling their bluff this time and wants the numbers.
AT&T have been gaming the system for years - they have very little real interest in land line service of any kind - if you go to a store and ask about land line service (the store only deal with cell phones) then they give you a number to call. Call the number and it's a "reseller" who promises you cheap rates and signs you up. AT&T then install the phone lines and charge you a rate about 4 times higher than the one you agreed to because you are not on an AT&T contract.
You can spend days talking to them on the phone about this and eventually they will tell you it's been fixed. But it never is - every month the bill keeps coming in at the high rates. When you cancel the service they send you another bill for early cancellation of the contract ... WTF!
AT&T - please roll over and die.
their spots and seemingly Tigers never change their stripes, either!
Telephone company mathematics are as tricky as unravelling cryptographic code - they've been at it for years. No one has been practicing accounting slight of hand better - and now the new, broken up, AT&T carries on the tradition.
"Create Artificial Scarcity." That's the credo of the monopolist. The monopolist AT&T is well versed in that religion. Inbred in their corporate culture is the act playing games of hide-and-seek with understaffed regulators and uneducated public utility commissions, from Maine to California. They are masters of it. 'We hide as much as we possibly can, invest as little as humanly possible, and you get to seek where we buried everything we could think of in the "rate case."' Sure, the FCC "wants to check it's math." Good luck with that.
You might be interested to know that AT&T actually -arranged- over time for the "breakup" of the old Bell System in return for being allowed to enter businesses they were previously restricted from entering, namely the cell phone business and the TV business. They were broken up into 6 or 7 smaller monopolies, which had no positive impact on consumer choice, and were subsequently partially merged back together by SW Bell--who promptly changed their name back to AT&T. Hollywood couldn't make this stuff up.
Now, they are threatening to stop investing in fiber optics systems unless they get their way on Net Neutrality. You should read this short article, which has been cited and validated by numerous other commentators on the web:
http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/12/what-france-has-taught-me-americans-are-suckers-who-have-themselves-to-blame-for-crappy-broadband/
""Create Artificial Scarcity." That's the credo of the monopolist....." It may well be, but the credo of the investor is "Invest your money where it will make the best return", and the current dicking around with 'Net Neutrality' is generating uncertainty and putting off investors, as shown by the drop in AT&T's share price after Obambi stuck his oar in last week. AT&T (and the market) needs the clarity to reassure the investors because AT&T needs investment to build out the new network, otherwise it reduces the potential profit to a point where investors will simply take their money elsewhere. And no-one will build high-speed networks if their is no guaranteed return. The people driving the Net Neutrality bandwagon, the people that actually want high-speed networks built out to everywhere, are cutting off their own noses to spite Wall Street. Big business, if they have to, will fund private networks from the likes of Google, and only the public consumer on the street will be left wondering why they're stuck in Slowville.
Fiber to the Hub is simply cheaper and more diverse than either pure Copper or Cable systems...
Gigabit fiber (TV Service), 7 to 100 MB internet service, Plain Old Telephone Service, and leased T-1 service for PBX's can all be accomodated on a Fiber to the Hub System... the fiber / data backbone runs in a 1/2 ring or full round robin ring with every apartment complex, business park, office buillding, marina, and rv park having a hub w/local copper on short runs to customers... Plug in ckt eq is simple and converts from a running by data stream to what ever is needed for the customer... did i mention that it is cheaper than Copper or Cable ??
IMHO= Telcos like Century Link have been running w/ this for a year or so now and each area that gets it becomes a cash cow that can be milked for a long time without doing any harm to their customers... the key is remotely programmable network eq. operated w/ AI operating systems that predict and correct most failures... the customer premis eq is simply a data interface... overall cheaper than Copper or Cable, making it a no brainer (AND needs no FCC consessions to get it installed).
Caveiat= for the 4th time (enough already !!)... Money is simply everything, Costs control what gets installed, and FTH is simply lhe current paradigsm...RS.
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