Why I Have a Mad on for the Monopoly

Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

Why I Have a Mad on for the Monopoly

Recently, I was asked (once again) why I have a mad on for the Verizon. It isn't Verizon. It is the whole collection of Duopoly - VZ, ATT, Fairpoint, Comcast, Cox, Charter, et al. They have let me down by being slaves to the stock price and squeezing every dollar out of consumers and Wall Street (while paying little in taxes.)

For all the rate hikes that the RBOCs received -- several of which were to build out a high speed fiber network to every home! - they have not delivered on Broadband. DSL was around for a long time before competitors brought it to market. RBOCs were saving their T1 business. VoIP could have replaced TDM lines -- or at least a bunch of helpful features could have been added to phone lines. Nope. Not till we have to!

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Here are some other incidents.

Misleading Sales and Untrained Personnel: Verizon tells customer he needs 75Mbps for smoother Netflix video!! Analyst blasts Verizon for misleading upsell pitch.

False Advertising since Unlimited does not mean that! "Verizon Scolds FiOS User For Consuming Seven Terabytes Monthly"

"When AT&T promises broadband--but delivers only 300kbps!!! For new homeowners, accurate information from Internet providers is hard to find."

"AT&T promised a customer it could get broadband to his new house - he wound up with 768Kbps service"

Fraud: "AT&T/SNET to Pay $10.9 Million to Settle Lifeline Overbilling"

Verizon pays Zero taxes again. VZ is not alone.

No taxes, but big salaries for top execs and spends Total Lobbying Expenditures: $3,440,000 in 2015! It is only 4 months into 2015!!!

How can you lobby to a government when you aren't a tax payer? [there is a petition to get this to stop here.]

Lobby because it lowers your tax bill!! Report: 8 Firms That Paid the Most in Lobbying Had Lower Tax Rates.

Constantly suing the FCC -- (money better spent elsewhere I think). U.S. telecom groups, AT&T seek to block new Internet rules.

Still making bank on dial-up -- 83-Year-Old Racks Up $24,289 In AT&T Charges By Still Using AOL Dial-Up.

Comcast is a customer service nightmare. Bright House apparently doesn't care that they have service issues and cost more than FiOS.

Overall, these companies COULD deliver fantastic service and still make a profit. They could be about more than the share price, but they make an organizational choice to only care about one thing. They don't care about America or the economy. So that is why I have a mad on for them.

Full disclosure: as an Agent, it is miserable to work with some of the Duopoly companies. And as a BellSouth agent, I was screwed out of a lot of commission money. A Lot. So that too.


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