The Pai FCC Sits On Its Hands While Phone Companies Rip Off American Taxpayers
from the ill-communication dept
We've talked often about how the nation's phone companies, now fixated on video and online advertising, have effectively just been letting their DSL and phone networks fall apart while still charging exorbitant rates. Not only did these companies take billions in taxpayer dollars to build these older copper-based networks, they took billions more in subsidies for fiber upgrades they never fully deployed. Yet increasingly we've watched as they've refused to upgrade or even repair their networks across countless states, leaving customers trapped with expensive service that often doesn't even meet the FCC's standard definition of broadband (25 Mbps).
This problem has often been exemplified by Frontier Communications in West Virginia, where local Charleston Gazette reporter Eric Eyre has quietly done an amazing job the last few years chronicling the state's immense corruption and dysfunction, from the state's use of broadband stimulus subsidies on unused, overpowered routers and overpaid, redundant consultants, to state leaders' attempts to bury reports supporting allegations that Frontier engaged in systemic, statewide fraud on the taxpayer dime.
Though not quite as profound, similar problems have plagued Frontier's operations in the state of Minnesota. The Minnesota Attorney General's office has been investigating whether Frontier violated state consumer-protection laws for a while now, and not long ago issued a 133 page report (pdf) detailing how terrible the company is at maintaining and repairing its network despite endless taxpayer subsidies. The report clearly illustrated a pattern of the company letting outages go on for months at a time, often putting paying customers 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. When interruptions occur, telephone utilities are to restore service “with the shortest possible delay.” 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."
Given that Frontier receives $283.4 million each year from the FCC's Connect America Fund (CAF), there's some obvious questions here as to who is minding the store and ensuring that Frontier is adhering to the law.
Like most broadband dysfunction, giant broadband ISPs get away with this sort of thing thanks to two things: a lack of real broadband competition, and regulatory capture. Case in point: Ajit Pai, whose FCC is supposed at least occasionally protect the American public. Senators in Minnesota have recently been pressing him to take some kind of action, even to publicly condemn the kind of grift and consumer mistreatment that's pretty common in the the state. In a letter posted to the FCC website (pdf), Pai effectively acknowledged the problem, though falls well short of saying he'll actually do anything about it:
"...the FCC will remain vigilant to ensure that our rules are observed and taxpayer funds respected. Accordingly, I have conveyed the information from your letter regarding the state commission’s investigation to our staff and have asked them carefully to monitor this development. Thank you for bringing this aspect of the issue to my attention."
While Pai is just a particularly obvious example of the regulatory capture that has infected telecom, this kind of "maybe we'll look into it" attitude has plagued both parties for decades when it comes to big telecom's long history of taxpayer-supported shenanigans and overall apathy. Needless to say, local state Senators weren't particularly enthusiastic about Pai's promise, especially given Pai's often breathless claims that he's a champion of stopping fraud and waste:
"For a chairman who is so concerned with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, it's baffling that the commission tasked with overseeing billions of dollars in public money is declining to investigate the more than a thousand allegations of poor service by a company that receives that public money to provide those services," US Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) told Ars in a statement today."
Given this is America, this will likely just be dismissed as partisan bickering. But it shouldn't be. We've thrown endless billions in taxpayer dollars at giant telecom conglomerates with often just a fleeting effort to ensure that money is being spent wisely. And while it's nice the Pai FCC will "monitor" the problem, we're long past that point. If you dig for more than twenty seconds, you can find endless examples of giant ISPs taking taxpayer dollars in exchange for the technological equivalent of damp garbage. And were Pai a quarter of the stalwart defender of fraud and waste he professes to be, this stuff would be met with a lot more than just "we might look into it."
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Filed Under: ajit pai, fcc, fiber, oversight, subsidies, taxpayers, upgrades
Companies: frontier communications
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"the FCC will remain vigilant to ensure that our rules are observed and taxpayer funds respected"
You had to type this because you couldn't keep a straight face while you said it you mewling moron??
You are supposed to work for US, why does everything you do screw us and benefit them??
You let them raid the cookie jar over and over & your only effort was to make sure no one could put a lid on the jar.
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Sitting on its hands?
It more feels like the Pai FCC’s t-bagging us American taxpayers.
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I would give you a Sad But True vote if I could. Have a Funny vote instead.
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Re:
Sometimes the art of comedy is to catch the reader off guard by painting a weird image in their heads.
But still, thank you.
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I thought he was sitting on his thumb
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You just put “All Star by Smash Mouth” stuck in my head.
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Eric Eyre for FCC Chairman
If a candidate said they would put this guy in as the head of the FCC if they won the election, I would vote for them in a heartbeat. Good high-speed internet is vital in today's world and will be even more important in the future. Allowing companies to regulate themselves and play games with our internet will never end well.
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The DSL and broadband behavior of phone companies gets most of the attention, but as the article briefly mentions they are "letting their DSL and phone networks fall apart", and at times the boring old telephone can be all but unusable.
I always had a plain landline telephone at home, for various reasons, and when I moved a few years ago I found that the phone at my new house had a neck-tensing hum in it all the time. (Right from the box; house wiring was not a factor.) Based on my parents' long experience with the same problem I doubted I'd ever see it fully repaired, and since they wouldn't let me transfer my old number anyway I dropped the landline service entirely and went with Charter's telephone service instead.
Driving around my area, a person can see any number of phone boxes along the street that are all but destroyed, whether from plows in the winter or simple neglect. Often huge bundles of wiring are just hanging out, and the boxes are usually partially or entirely open to the elements. Is it any wonder phones have noise on the line, or any of their other chronic problems?
I'm not categorically opposed to subsidies for certain types of infrastructure. But getting tax breaks and other kinds of public money thrown at them should require these companies to deal honestly and maintain usable levels of service. That clearly isn't happening.
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"...the FCC will remain vigilant to ensure that our rules are observed and taxpayer funds respected.
I doubt it, given their continual misuse of the word respect.
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If you read Pai's entire letter, he points out that the Minnesota public utility commission has annually certified that Frontier used these funds appropriately as per the federal guidelines that apply to the federal funds they received. If Klobuchar has a legitimate problem (rather than just engaging in political grandstanding), maybe she should take it up with her state government?
What more is the FCC supposed to do here? This whole article seems to be generalized bitching without actual facts tying your thesis together - the bad service issues you link to appear to be a state, not a federal issue.
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You have it backwards: Minnesota already has been on the case for a little while now, but they can only go so far...
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"What more is the FCC supposed to do here?"
How about less?
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They're already doing less than they should. And they're doing everything they can to make sure they can't do anything at all.
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People: "SpongePai, you need to be more assertive! Look! There's the company that shirked on providing service while taking your government handouts! Don't you want it back? Tell them off, SpongePai. Assert yourself!"
SpongePai: "Hey, that's Federal money you have there!"
People: "Great! NOW LET 'EM HAVE IT!!!"
SpongePai: "You can have it."
Frontier: "Say, thanks!" [walks off]
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