AB 2897: Millions being spent on regulatory battle instead of service improvements

Here’s an analysis of legislation, AB 2897, that would give the California Department of Corporations sole authority to grant cable and video franchises, preempting the existing authority of local governments to grant the franchises.

The bill’s proponents including AT&T and other telecom vendors want one stop shopping to obtain video franchises from the state rather than having to separately negotiate agreements with cities and counties.

There’s nothing in the analysis that suggests AB 2987 would do anything to expand broadband Internet access in El Dorado County despite the bill’s stated purpose to promote competition among providers. It’s unfortunate that these vendors are spending millions on regulatory food fights rather than investing those dollars in urgently needed improvements to upgrade and expand their services.

Americans commuting farther, longer than ever

Another story on Census Bureau research that points up the need for modernized telecommunications in outlying residential areas to allow people telecommute to their jobs.

Presently, however, too many can't get on the information highway from home, trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide and relegated to sluggish and outdated dial up connections to the Internet.

Population shift to exurbs has major implications for telecoms

Northeasterners are moving South and West. West Coast residents are moving inland. Midwesterners are chasing better job markets. And just about everywhere, people are escaping to the outer suburbs, also known as exurbs.

This story has huge implications for telecommunications companies that serve outlying areas who should be putting in place updated networks now to serve the growing population.

Think tank: Rural U.S. faces potential loss of telecom infrastructure

“If changes are not made soon, then the universal service system as we have known it will suffer irreparable damage. Consumers in the most rural and high-cost areas of the nation will face the very real possibility of having no telecommunications carrier capable of connecting them to the telephone and information networks,” the firm concludes in “Universal Service: Rural Infrastructure at Risk, Release 2.0,” a white paper published earlier this month.

Article at NRTC Update

Broadband in Iceland, but not El Dorado County

U.S. government officials have noted that the low population density of the U.S. makes it difficult to deploy broadband over large areas of the country, but the advance of other low population density countries like Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden seems to indicate that broadband can be deployed in rural and remote areas if there is a will.

Article in Internet News by TechWeb News

Sacramento Bee: Rain exposes problems with AT&T's aging infrastructure

Phone service rained out for many in region
By Clint Swett -- Bee Staff Writer

Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 14, 2006

Carl Wood, a former commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission and now a labor union consultant in Southern California, said AT&T may be more vulnerable because it serves a large geographic area and much of its infrastructure is aging.

Senate hearing on wireless broadband set

MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2006

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SELECT COMMITTEE ON
E-COMMERCE, WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY AND
CONSUMER DRIVEN PROGRAMMING
         
FLOREZ, Chair
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Room 3191
SUBJECT: Wireless Communities:
Connecting Communities
Rural and Urban Broadband Possibilities
Wi-Fi vs. Wi-Max

Frustrated with long phone outages? Tell the Sacramento Bee

From the Sacramento Bee Business section:

Published 5:55 pm PDT Monday, April 10, 2006

Some Sacramento-area residents are complaining of lengthy outages and of waiting more than a week to get service restored to their landlines.

If this has happened to you, Bee reporter Clint Swett would like to hear your story. E-mail him at cswett@sacbee.com with a daytime phone number.

Pipes? What pipes?

AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre recently proclaimed that businesses like Google and others who reach their consumers over the Internet should pay for the right to use AT&T's system. "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?" Whitacre told Business Week Online.

The inhabitants of El Dorado County must be collectively scratching their heads at Whitacre's remark. For most of them, their sluggish dial up Internet experience courtesy of AT&T is like sipping through a cocktail straw. Pipes? What pipes?

Petition demanding AT&T upgrade or divest gains early support

More than 100 residents from various parts of El Dorado County have signed an on line petition urging AT&T demonstrate its commitment to serving El Dorado County’s current and future telecommunications needs by taking immediate measures to upgrade its system with fiber optic cable offering broadband Internet access.

The petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/EldoTelecom/ also asks AT&T to immediately solicit bids to sell off its assets in the county to another telecommunications provider that is committed to putting in place a state of the art telecommunications system if it determines doing so is not in its economic interests.

“Since the petition was only initially publicized in early February, I’m encouraged by the support it has received so far,” said Fred Pilot, organizer of El Dorado County Residents and Businesses for Quality Telecommunications. “The numbers show the petition is gaining early traction and momentum, reflecting the level of dissatisfaction with the current state of AT&T’s service in El Dorado County.” The dissatisfaction is evident in the comments of those signing the petition.

“My husband and I have been deeply frustrated with the lack of accessibility to modern communication systems,” wrote El Dorado resident Sandra Parson. “We are stuck with dial up, which is archaic in this day and age no matter where one lives! We urge [AT&T] to act on this petition quickly.”

“AT&T owes us the same level of service as their urban customers since they have been permitted to have a monopoly,” wrote Pollock Pines resident Richard Campbell.

“This needs to happen very, very, soon!” wrote Placerville resident Joanne Mello. “And this must happen in the Pleasant Valley area, too.”

“So many of the basic services on the net require a faster service than the 24K Bits/second,” wrote Garden Valley resident Patricia Snelling. “How are we expected to function the same as other Internet customers when we don’t have the same options available to us?”

Pollock Pines resident Clarence Abbott wrote that broadband Internet access “is essential for the conduct of business and personal communications, and retrieving info from Web.”

“Broadband service for El Dorado County has become a necessity in our ever changing world of technology,” noted Placerville resident Julie Donner. “With only dial-up available to us, which is only 28k, broadband would also be most appreciated.”

South Lake Tahoe business owner Bill Burns said he has been asking AT&T to provide broadband Internet service in his area for more than four years to no avail. “I am totally dissatisfied with the service I currently receive and will not consider any more,” Burns wrote AT&T on the petition. “I am appalled and disgusted by the marketing of technology you cannot deliver. If I had another choice, I would not do business with your company. Provide us with service we can use, not empty PR about the great things we can expect.”

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El Dorado County remains disconnected as broadband subscribers show 10 million increase in 2005

The number of broadband Internet subscribers grew by 10 million in the United States in 2005, according to the Durham, NC-based research firm Leichtman Research Group (LRG).

“With about 10 million additional broadband subscribers in the US in 2005, the number of net broadband additions has increased every year this decade” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG.

By contrast, most El Dorado County residents remain stranded along the information highway, stuck with sluggish dial up connections to the Internet representative of early 1990s technology. While the majority of Americans who use the Internet from home enjoy high speed connections, El Dorado County residents are relegated to unreliable dial up connections that make using surfing the Web difficult.

They suffer this plight because the county’s predominant telecommunications provider, AT&T, has failed to bring El Dorado County up to date with a modern, reliable telecommunications system. Large portions of the county are wired with an aging and obsolete copper cable system that often proves incapable of delivering reliable voice service let alone Internet access.

El Dorado County Residents and Businesses is sponsoring a petition drive urging AT&T to upgrade its system or divest its assets in the county to make way for another provider committed to serving the county’s current and future telecommunications needs. The online petition can be accessed at http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/EldoTelecom/.