Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
This July 4th, Declare Independence from King AT&T
There’s no better way to celebrate the start of a revolution than to break free from the tyranny of a telecom monopoly. So join us this Independence Day, and declare yourself independent from King AT&T and its monopolist pals.
We’ll be celebrating the holiday by throwing our own AT&Tea Party, so to speak. We’ve created a few graphics that we’ll be sharing on social media alongside examples of communities that have freed themselves from the rule of broadband monopolies once and for all using the hashtag #CommunityNets. Please join us by using the hashtag, sharing the images, or posting your own story about how your community has built its own broadband network.
Check out our social media kit below or share via Facebook.
Time to Dump AT&T
The telecom giant has a long history of neglecting its subscribers, exploiting its employees, and abusing our state legislatures in order to maintain its monopoly for the benefit of its executives and shareholders. According to the most recent Federal Communications Commission data, more than one million people can only access broadband through AT&T, and at least 83 million people in the United States live under a broadband monopoly. More importantly, AT&T is writing the rules for the entire market both in DC and state legislatures.
While King AT&T is not the only monopoly broadband provider that we should rebel against, it is certainly among the worst. Here are just several select examples of how AT&T has acted egregiously over the years:
- Accused of illegally spying on Internet traffic and violating users’ privacy for the National Security Agency.
- Was a key lobbying force that got North Carolina’s HB 129 — one of the country’s most restrictive anti-competition laws preventing community broadband — passed in 2011.
- Settled accusations of underreporting business phone lines in order to avoid paying its fair share for 911 facilities and underbid competitors’ service prices.
- Lobbied for legislation that ended privacy protections for customers’ personal data.
- Cut network investments and tens of thousands of jobs after receiving a $42 billion corporate tax break that the company claimed would lead to increased employment and broadband investment.
- Was fined $60 million by the Federal Trade Commission for throttling the speeds of wireless subscribers with supposedly “unlimited” data plans.
- Continued to sell its wireless customers’ location data after repeatedly claiming that it would stop the practice.
- Excluded its own HBO Max service from the company’s wireless data caps, violating the net neutrality principles that the company lobbied heavily against and claimed were unnecessary.
Like the colonists in 1776, communities around the country have decided enough is enough and have built their own broadband networks. Hundreds of cities, counties, cooperatives, tribes, and neighborhoods across the U.S. now operate their own high-quality networks, bringing faster speeds, lower prices, and better service to their communities.
Help Spread the Word
Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, where we’ll be sharing the graphics below along with stories of successful community networks using #CommunityNets to declare our independence from King AT&T.
Please share the images below on your social media accounts. Include your own experience with poor connectivity and a lack of Internet choice, or share a story of how your community is taking back control from King AT&T and other broadband monopolies. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #CommunityNets!