AT&T Buries Language In Missouri Traffic Bill To Hinder Broadband Competition

from the the-best-lawmakers-money-can-buy dept

Thu, May 5th 2016 8:34am — Karl Bode

Prompted by AT&T, Missouri passed a state law in 1997 that hamstrings towns and cities looking to build local networks to shore up broadband coverage gaps. Since then, AT&T has made repeated attempts to expand those restrictions further, fearing a growing rise in public/private partnerships from the likes of Google Fiber, Ting, or the countless towns and cities tired of AT&T's pricey, slow broadband service. After a failed attempt last year, AT&T this year introduced protectionist bill HB 2078, shortly after shoveling $62,000 in campaign contributions to state leaders.

AT&T's bills vary in scope across the twenty-odd states in which they've been passed. Some ban community broadband altogether. Some saddle towns and private partners with additional restrictions so combating the incumbent duopoly is financially impossible. Others, like HB2078, employ language that forces towns to hold time-consuming public referendums, at which point AT&T can bury the proposal with a wave of negative PR and lawyers.

All of them have tried to sow partisan discord under the pretense of AT&T just being concerned about taxpayers funding the bill for such projects. But the laws serve just one purpose: protect AT&T's stranglehold over an uncompetitive broadband market. That's obviously a much easier sale in states willing to quite literally let AT&T write state law in exchange for cash donation.

The problem for AT&T is that as Google Fiber and other similar efforts have shown a light on the benefits of public/private partnerships to shore up lagging broadband markets, AT&T's behavior has become increasingly unpopular among both political parties. So when HB2078 stalled after passing through the Missouri House committees on Utility Infrastructure and the Select Committee on Utilities earlier this year, AT&T lobbyists got decidedly more clever. They convinced Missouri House Representative Lyndall Fraker to bury the language of HB2078 into an unrelated bill dealing with Missouri traffic issues:

"The bill seems to have lost momentum since mid-March but its sponsor, Rep. Lyndall Fraker, is taking another approach to make sure his bill gets passed, come hell or high water. Session ends May 13th, so he is now banking on procedural tricks, rather than the substance of his legislation. On May 2nd, when a bill relating to traffic citations, SB 765, came before the body, Fracker proposed to amend it with language from HB 2078. Some of the amended language is even more destructive than the original proposal in HB 2078."

As Ars Technica notes, whether the bill can get conference committee approval now that the public has noticed what AT&T and Fraker attempted to do isn't clear. Though should AT&T succeed, it would only help cement Missouri as a broadband backwater, keeping consumers from fleeing to alternative broadband options as AT&T prepares to impose major new usage caps and overage fees across the majority of the ISP's markets later this month.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: broadband, lobbyists, missouri, muni broadband
Companies: at&t

22 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Violynne (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 7:45am

I can see it! The shadow looming over Missouri as the DeATTh Star readies its anti-competitive cannons...

Legure may say some stupid crap at times, but even this made me appreciate his hatred of AT&T. DeATTh Star. Classic.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Ninja (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 8:50am
  
  Re:
  Connection timed out. Cannons failed.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ninja (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 8:51am

bury the language of HB2078 into an unrelated bill dealing with Missouri traffic issues

Is this the time when you joke that traffic jams in Missouri are probably faster than AT&T?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DannyB (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 9:04am

Seems like a good idea
We don't want traffic on our roads to move too fast. It's for our protection.

Similarly we don't want traffic on the information superhighway to move too fast either. It's for ISP's protection.

Safety first.

Isn't a traffic bill a good place to hide this?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
scotts13 (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 9:12am

words
Actually, it's "shone (or shined) a light", not shown.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
afn29129 (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 9:18am

only $62,000 ?
Wow! how cheaply the whores sell their votes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2016 @ 9:21am
  
  Re: only $62,000 ?
  I concur. I am frequently startled when I see the relative trifles that our elected representatives will sell themselves for. Perhaps, they make up for that in quantity.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2016 @ 9:31am
  
  Re: only $62,000 ?
  As was noted in the Ars Technica article, Missouri House Representative Lyndall Fraker received $3,450 from AT&T in his time as a lawmaker since 2011. He has also received $2,300 from CenturyLink and $1,500 from Comcast.
  
  For ATT, that's the equivalent of bribing some yabbo with a Happy Meal. What a rube.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
That One Guy (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 9:26am

This? This is why people don't like or trust politicians
If you can't get the bill you want passed openly, simply hide it in an unrelated bill and hope it flies under the radar until it's too late, or stick it in a 'must pass' bill and get it passed into law that way.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- DannyB (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 12:51pm
  
  Re: This? This is why people don't like or trust politicians
  Let's be more blunt. They're crooks and liars.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2016 @ 9:37am

not only should AT&T be held accountable for this behavior, any and all politicians not just involved but doing the sort of 'bad for the public' acts like Lyndall Fraker is committing should be removed from office! he isn't doing this for any other reason than assist AT&T and in return is being well rewarded with campaign contributions.

ok, i appreciate this thing isn't isolated but isn't it about time that 'the peoples representatives' were made to do just that and not be concerned with nothing other than themselves and how big a fortune they can amass while in office, doing the bidding of industries, a fortune that will bode them well should they ever lose their seat or be retired while the public get well and truly screwed?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2016 @ 11:38am
  
  Re:
  amazing the 35 grand a year they get for salaries just isn't enough for them
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Whatever (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 10:35am

"The problem for AT&T is that as Google Fiber and other similar efforts have shown a light on the benefits of public/private partnerships to shore up lagging broadband markets, "

No, Google Fiber has shown mostly that a company with gobs of free cash and nothing to do with it can spend hundreds of millions a year with absolutely not requirement for a return on investment, just to "disrupt" others.

Go look at the most recent Google / Alphabet numbers, they lost 500-600 million (if memory serves me correctly) on their various extra projects, with Google Fiber being the majority of that loss. In any other industry, that would be akin to dumping.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2016 @ 9:53am
  
  Re:
  Wouldn't it be akin to "exploration" in the oil and gas industry. There's no guarantee there's profit there until they do enough research to know. Isn't that what Google's doing?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2016 @ 10:42am

AT&T wasn't elected to write *anything*
Once again, I will suggest that part of any legislative action should be to require author attribution for any text that is to be voted upon.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Derek Kerton (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 11:10am

But It IS Related To Road Traffic
But Karl, if you slow down broadband enough, then people will need to drive hard drives around town in order to move content. At this point, using sneakernet, the road traffic is directly related to broadband speed and access.

This is no mere hypothetical, see
http://www.fastcompany.com/3048163/in-cuba-an-underground-network-armed-with-usb-drives-does-the- work-of-google-and-youtube

If we're lucky, Missouri will soon have equal data infrastructure as Cuba...but without the medical coverage.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 May 2016 @ 11:45am

This is the shit that needs to end
Businesses should not be writing ANYTHING when it comes to law. Laws should be written by the lawmakers themselves.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- DannyB (profile), 5 May 2016 @ 12:53pm
  
  Re: This is the shit that needs to end
  That's crazy talk. What you suggest would require that lawmakers have education beyond the sixth grade.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2016 @ 12:48am

Bills like this should never be able to be attached to other bills that have absolutely nothing to do with it. There's absolutely no reason for them to be together and the ability to attach them to other bills needs to be banned.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 28 Nov 2016 @ 9:06am
  
  Re:
  This is how they make it look like there is lots of work for them. All the confusion adds to job security. Stupid congress idiots dont even know how to read or write bills.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 May 2016 @ 4:29pm

AT&T (and TONS of other companies) needs smacked around again like back in 1982.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Nov 2016 @ 8:59am

Why wouldnt Missouri House Representative Lyndall Frake be considered a criminal? Oh, its politics...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]