A Survey of National Private Sector Broadband Providers

When it comes to expanding access to the Internet across the US, the federal government has long looked first to the private sector, ignoring hundreds of years of experience showing that unaccountable private companies cannot be trusted to sufficiently invest in or govern essential infrastructure. Inevitably, they price access to high and invest too little as they maxmize their profits -- thereby minimizing the profits of all other parts of the economy. So let's take a little survey of the progress we see from these companies. We have long railed against the Verizon -> FairPoint fiasco in New England that left Verizon much richer at the expense of residents and businesses in rural Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine particularly. Well, FairPoint creditors have realized the depth of Verizon's scam and are suing Verizon for $2 billion. Read the complaint [pdf].

According to the complaint (pdf), Verizon not only made out like a financial bandit up front, but took advantage of regulatory delays to strip mine the assets of anything of value, including core IP network components, business services, and localized billing and support assets required to support the three states. Verizon then billed out their support assistance for millions per month during the very rocky transition, during which time 911 and other services saw repeated outages, resulting in millions more in refund penalties.

Karl Bode is right to criticize the state authorities that allowed this fiasco to occur. Their inability to regulate in the public interest has hurt everyone stuck in the mess. While we can expect powerful companies like Verizon to try to game the system at every opportunity, there is no excuse for making it so easy for them. As long as we are talking about Verizon shedding its rural investments, let's take a look at how Frontier is doing since it inherited thousands upon thousands of FiOS customers as part of its recent deal with Verizon. Frontier has decided the best approach is to transition those customers from the next-generation FTTH network to an older, slower, less reliable, DSL alternative. Find me another country where a major company is moving customers away from fiber-optic connections. This is a national embarrassment. Rather than investing in better technology, Frontier has literally doubled down on DSL by marketing a second DSL line to customers. Connect one computer to one line and the TV/video game unit to another one. Of course, it turns out they are lying (or incompetent) when it comes to how much they are charging for it...

In other words, that $13.50 1.5 Mbps (if you're lucky) DSL line is actually closer to a $50 1.5 Mbps DSL line once Frontier gets done slamming you with additional fees. These kinds of below-the-line fees have been a mainstay at phone companies for decades, essentially allowing them to engage in false advertising and covertly jack up the advertised price post sale. It's a practice that has yet to see any real attention of regulators, even those ceaselessly professing dedication to "transparency." It helps that Frontier serves a lot of uncompetitive markets where users have no other options, resulting in "deals" like this one.

Let's move on to the nation's largest cable company, Comcast. We recently noted Comcast's dubious distinction as the least trusted company in America. It was simultaneously the second least trusted. I'm guessing we won't see that award plastered on the side of the vehicles their poorly compensated contractors drive around. Occupy Philly, the City of Brotherly Love offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, recently demonstrated at the Comcast Center to bring attention to Comcast's corporate tax dodging. Hey -- I thought Comcast routinely said it wasn't fair that non-profit entities don't pay taxes! Finally, the big cable companies in general have been singled out in a study showing that Americans lost $38 billion in wages last year while waiting for technicians and delivery people. Cable companies were the worst at making people wait - prompting one person to say "SCAMCAST should be their name." There is plenty more of examples like the above, but I'm done writing about them today. Just recall that the federal government prefers that this group of unaccountable corporations build, own, and operate the most important utility of the 21st century. We prefer local ownership that is accountable to communities. Time Warner Cable has actually been sued for its terrible customer service!