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The Ajit Pai FCC just doled out $9.2 billion in your money to expand broadband.
But consumer groups say the FCC's determination of who qualified was a joke, resulting in ISPs getting millions to deploy service to affluent areas often already served: https://www.freepress.net/our-response/expert-analysis/insights-opinions/fiber-clubhouse-pai-subsidizes-broadband-rich
But consumer groups say the FCC's determination of who qualified was a joke, resulting in ISPs getting millions to deploy service to affluent areas often already served: https://www.freepress.net/our-response/expert-analysis/insights-opinions/fiber-clubhouse-pai-subsidizes-broadband-rich
looks like the Institute for Local Self Reliance was also...unimpressed...by the FCC's latest effort, noting that the awards don't make sense and are being given to companies like Frontier with histories of failure and fraud: https://twitter.com/communitynets/status/1337051313964781572?s=20
Digging into the data now, but it looks like the FCC spent $9 billion to make a handful of ISPs (like Starlink) wealthier without doing its homework first.
Now, as is the Pai FCC custom, it will proclaim it single-handedly "solved the digital divide" in a few months.
Now, as is the Pai FCC custom, it will proclaim it single-handedly "solved the digital divide" in a few months.
there's a lot of examples like this, where companies got ratepayer money to expand broadband to a handful of homes in wealthy areas that already have broadband and should not be priorities for the FCC:
The FCC should embrace policies that creatively expand competition and access in underserved areas. Instead they're throwing cash at dodgy companies (Charter, Frontier) to deliver service to handfuls of rich folks.
this will somehow then be spun into a victory for the poor.
this will somehow then be spun into a victory for the poor.
Then there's Starlink, owned by one of the richest human beings on the planet, which also got nearly $1 billion to offer broadband to places that don't make sense, like this parking lot near the Pentagon:
A lot of the companies getting YOUR money have long histories of dodgy behavior. Like Frontier Communications, which took taxpayer money in West Virginia, misled folks on how it was spent, then refused to give it back: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171016/14224738415/after-report-suggests-it-ripped-off-taxpayers-frontier-communications-shrugs-when-asked-subsidies-back.shtml
Or Charter Communications (Spectrum), which lied so often to New York State regulators about broadband deployments that it almost got kicked out of the state: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190422/10421942061/charter-spectrum-wont-get-kicked-out-new-york-state-after-isp-promises-to-suck-less.shtml
You'd think we'd stop throwing billions of dollars at companies to do something they've REPEATEDLY failed to do.
You'd also think we'd prioritize low income and marginalized communities, not parking lots next to rich folks' golf courses.
But nope! 'Murica.
You'd also think we'd prioritize low income and marginalized communities, not parking lots next to rich folks' golf courses.
But nope! 'Murica.
The Ajit Pai FCC has absolutely no respect for accurate data. It also literally can't admit that the U.S. broadband industry's biggest problem is a lack of competition due to monopolization.
So it's not surprising the end policy product winds up being fluff and nonsense.
So it's not surprising the end policy product winds up being fluff and nonsense.
if you're interested there's another good post here by @DougDawson_CCG , who notes that by letting wireless providers overstate the capability of wireless, the FCC actually undermined efforts to deploy real fiber to many communities:
https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2020/12/08/the-fcc-drops-the-ball-on-rdof/
https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2020/12/08/the-fcc-drops-the-ball-on-rdof/
There's a thing deregulatory telecom zealots do where they overhype the capabilities of emerging telecom tech (Mike Powell did this with BPL, also see 5G) so they can pretend it's a deus ex machina that will magically fix everything, thereby justifying an apathetic regulator
A functioning FCC would prioritize better data and broadband maps, then put rigid ideology aside (see their utter contempt for community broadband networks) and embrace absolutely any competitive solution that addresses the problem and helps people.
Instead we get theater.
Instead we get theater.
oh and fraud. Lots and lots and lots of fraud, dodgy accounting, and zero accountability. Paid for by you.
