As the mergers (AT&T/DirecTV and Charter-TWC-BrightHouse) are coming under review at both the Dept. of Justice and the FCC, the propaganda machines are full swing - especially by AT&T which has a formula for getting its way at the FCC.
BGR has a headline - AT&T's Latest Promise to FCC in Effort to Win DirecTV Merger Approval Reeks of Desperation - that is interesting, except it isn't desperation. This is the AT&T formula for mergers. Make Promises that you will never keep. It works every time.
Oh the promises that they make to get their way: "Moffett says AT&T's ambitious plan is to run fiber past the equivalent of 11.7 million homes after its merger with DirecTV gets approved. What's even more intriguing here is that this build out will significantly overlap many big cable companies' footprints, with the biggest overlap occurring in Comcast territory," reports BGR.
That would mean thaht AT&T would have fiber pass just 15% of its market potential of 77 million locations.
"The AT&T-BellSouth merger, circa 2006-2007, had a commitment to deliver cheap $10.00 DSL -- and never delivered," writes Bruce Kushnick, who seems to hate the ILEC more than I ever could.***
Today, AT&T is promising DSL as low as $5!!! Part of Lifeline services it delivers -- but no one ever gets the offer or no one can jump through the hoops to actually get the service!! Surprised? I'm not.
Kushnick "filed a complaint about this as we uncovered that almost every statement in the DirecTV merger proposal claims that 25 percent of their territories still does not have broadband, contradicting their signed declarations that the work had been completed, now 7 years ago." AT&T had promised broadband to 100% of their 22 state region by 2008 if AT&T could acquire BellSouth. Satellite broadband was the answer. Just plain B$!
The FCC Rubber Stamp Squad has no enforcement arm, according to DSLR. How could it when many FCC commissioners go work for the Duopoly - or like Pai are hoping for a job soon?
Even the conditions of the CenturyLink-Embarq deal weren't met! And those were pretty easy - "Deliver DSL of at least 3Mbps to 75% of customers one year from close, increasing that to 80% of customers within three years."
"An audit conducted by New York City's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications has found that Verizon Communications failed to deliver on its promise to provide fiber-optic service for television and broadband to anyone who wants them by 2014," reports Fierce.
In 2008, the FCC auction for the 700 MHz spectrum, Google got involved. "By bluffing its way through the bid, Google was able to drive the price high enough to get the FCC to adopt open-access rules it pushed for that require the network operator to allow any device or application to connect to it." That was 7 years ago. VZW uses 700 for LTE. Is there open-access?
There has not been one telco merger that worked out well for the consumer or employees. How many pensions have been eliminated? How many union jobs? How many non-union jobs? How bad has customer service gotten? How awful is the copper network? Where's the maintenance?
They want to get bigger because it is the only way to keep Wall Street happy. But who gives a shit about Wall Street, except a handful of people? And the F Agencies have a duty, a mandate, to protect the consumers - not make the business financials of the telco look better.
Why do we keep doing this over and over? Well, for one, no one physically stands up. Blogging, tweeting, facebooking is not the same as faxing, calling, mailing a letter or showing up at the doorstep of the F Agency.
For another, this is politics as usual in the cesspool called DC.SIDEBAR
***For me it isn't so much I hate the ILEC. I think that at every turn, their chief execs are lazy and liars. It is all about stock price and upper management compensation. In the meantime, no innovation, failed initiatives, poor execution, lousy labor relations, pension irresponsibility, and unfulfilled promises over and over again. Meanwhile, they could be helping the economy grow, just by delivering on their promises. But NO! It might cut into the C-Suite party. That is why I rail against the ILEC. If they did their job right, there would be no competition at all - and I woul be unemployed.
