The Legal & Regulatory Violations & Egregious Acts of the State Telecommunications Utilities: The FWA Fixed Wireless-5G Cell Site Bait-and-Switch and Fiber Optic Broken Promises.

The IRREGULATORS POSITION — THESE COMPANIES NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

SUMMARY: Wireless is not a replacement of fiber optic networks to the home, and in every state, laws were changed over the last 3 decades to build-upgrade the existing copper wires with fiber; customers were charged for these upgrades, and the money was instead diverted to wireless. Moreover, the companies were able to manipulate the accounting to divert the construction budgets to wireless, and used the state utilities as cash machines to fund their other lines of business.

AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink (Lumen) created the Digital Divide by this failure to upgtade America and then pull a wireless bait-and-switch.

Besides the publication of our new books that details these collection of egregious acts, the IRREGULATORS have been involved in a number of proceedings in California and New York and we outlined that the wireless plans in both areas were flawed, that wireless is not a solution to wireline and the AT&T in California (and LA County) and Verizon in New York (and New York City) had obligations to do fiber optic upgrades and had changed laws over the last 2 decades and manipulated the accounting that harmed these areas and the public interest.

With HR3557 and the related proposed legislation, we note that these are a put on job by Big Telecom and there are direct and indirect ties to a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, and other members of this ‘family’ that are out to remove all regulations and obligations on the wireless companies– including where they put cell sites or removal of any health and environmental studies.

We also wrote about how Verizon is currently attempting to slip Fixed Wireless as a ‘fiber’, broadband service using the name FiOS- which we believe is deceptive advertising, and even the pricing in the advertisements is deceptive.

FILINGS AND ARTICLES — WITH LINKS.

• FILED: in LA County and with the California Broadband Council and the California Public Utility Commission since LA County is pushing a wireless plan, claiming it will solve the Digital Divide. This action has been taken instead of investigating the fact that AT&T was supposed to complete a network upgrade in LA county to fiber optics back in the 1993-2000 timeframe.
• LA County Rewards ‘The Company We Will Not Name’ that Created the Digital Divide.
• Treasure Chest of Billions to Solve the Digital Divide for Cities, Counties and States: Dear LA County.
• Dear LA County: Investigate the Real Shockeroo; America’s Egregious Broadband Rates vs the EU 27 Prices.
• Dear LA County: Time to Investigate How AT&T (Pac Bell) Helped to Create the Digital Divide.

• FILED: In New York City we filed against the continuation of putting wireless cell antennas on poles and structures in streets, claiming it would give access to low-income families. However, as we wrote, these antennas are actually being used to sell retail advertising services and are based on kiosks so that they can sell advertising space as opposed to upgrading the city’s FiOS services, which are supposed to have reached 100% of the city by 2014 date, and do 500,000 lines in the areas that were not done, to be completed by July 16, 2023.
• Halt the NYC WiFi Plan Clusterfork; Investigate Verizon NY’s Massive Accounting Scandal
• Want to Fix the Digital Divide But You Weren’t Given the Basic Facts?

• UPCOMING: FWA Truth in Advertising, Truth in Billing complaint. Verizon is attempting to claim that the FWA is actually a FiOS branded, wired home broadband internet service, and that it starts at $25, that is it uses 100% fiber optic networks and that there are no hidden fees. What we can prove is that wireless is not a fiber optic service equivalent substitute, as there is a gap from the home wireless antenna to the cell site, 500-2000 feet away. Additionally, no one can get the advertised $25 fee as it requires a second hidden 5G phone service for $70-$90 a month, which is not mentioned in the advertisement and that if the customer doesn’t have that service, they must pay at least $50.00 for the FWA service. Moreover, the FiOS brand has always been a wired ‘Fiber-Optic service, not wireless and it is part of the bundle of a franchised service for a wireline service with specific quality of service requirements, which wireless does not have.
• The Wireless FiOS Home Internet Bait and Switch — Deceptive Advertised Speeds & Wireless Unreliability.
• Verizon’s FiOS Home Internet Is Now a Deceptive Fixed Wireless Bait and Switch.

• Ongoing Articles and Next Steps: Kill the FWA HR3557 Legislation That Is An ALEC Wireless Con: The House Commerce Committee has started a process to consolidate the preemption of municipal authority for wireless equipment siting that are currently state-based bills into a federal bill that was written by AT&T et. al. and the other wireless industry providers at the American Legislative Exchange Council conferences, where they create model legislation that they give to ALEC member politicians who are also usually funded by AT&T et al and groomed for free-market politicians to help the companies that support their election campaigns and PACs.
• ALEC Inspired Bill HR3557 is a Wireless Bait and Switch that will Kill Fiber Wireline Deployment.

• Upcoming: Taking a State Broadband Office (SBO) and the NTIA to Court: over the failure of the states to include material facts in the required 5 plans, which are being done in order to get government subsidies. ===How can a SBO leave out the fact that there are state-based telecommunications utilities that were supposed to be upgraded to fiber optics starting in the 1990’s?
• NTIA: Require Every State Broadband Agency to Investigate Those Responsible for Creating the State’s Digital Divide.
• Broadband State Agencies fail to answer basic questions about how the Digital Divide was created in their state.
• No Government Subsidies to AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink: They Created the Digital Divide on Purpose. Where’s All the Money?

• Ongoing: Accounting Fraud and Scandal; Wireless and Corporate Operations Cross-Subsidies We uncovered that the accounting used by Verizon et al has been manipulated so that it allocates the majority of all expenses to local service and the utility vs charged to Verizon’s other subs, especially wireless.
• Just Released for Public Review: The Verizon NY 2022 Annual Report Shows a Massive, Corrupt, Financial Accounting Scheme.
• IRREGULATORS to NY STATE: Halt the Verizon Wireless and Corporate Operations Subsidies: Get Back Billions Overcharged by Verizon, Now.
• We have spoke or filed in NY State and city broadband proceedings for over 2 decades, and uncovered a fundamental flaw. Verizon NY is the primary state telecommunications public utility and is required to submit annual financial reports. The State has been negligent and should have audited the Verizon NY Financial Annual Reports.

• NO MORE MADE-UP TAXES, FEES, SURCHARGES; NO MORE TAXES ON TAXES. We support the Biden-Harris Administration and the White House Competition Council’s call on all agencies to reduce or eliminate hidden fees, charges, and add-ons for everything from banking services to cable and internet bills to airline and concert tickets. These so called “junk fees” are not just an irritant – they can weaken market competition, raise costs for consumers and businesses, and hit the most vulnerable Americans the hardest.
• Are Made-Up, Hidden, Broadcast-Sports Fees You Pay Quintuple-Taxed with Other Made-Up Fees?
• Made-up, Broadcast-Sports Fees Up 820%; Overcharging $250+ a Year— then Quintuple-Taxed, Fee’d and Surcharged.

• ONGOING; Regulatory Agency Capture — The FCC’s advisory committees have always been a corporate cesspool since they are packed with representatives of the corporations that are supposed to be regulated and consumer and civil rights organizations that receive corporate grants. Just one example of regulatory capture is our experience on the Consumer Advisory Committee, which revealed that even the non-profits on the committees were funded directly and indirectly by AT&T et al.
• The current FCC Diversity Committee has been hijacked by the industry. In order to insure that the newfound cash from government subsidies from the ACP program is permanently funded the Telcos’ stuffed the committee with a non-profit payola scheme that has a large number of committee members being black, Hispanic, seniors, LGBT, etc nonprofits and the companies themselves controlling the agenda and it fails to produce or examine any divergent views from providing more government subsidies to the companies for a wireless future.

The Attacks on the Proposed FCC Commissioner, Gigi Sohn, Are Also Attacks on Our Democracy.