Stop the Cap!

Time 2020-10-12 05:03:18

Web Name: Stop the Cap!

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Time Warner Cable's Modem Fee Doesn't Add UpTime Warner Cable wants you to pay $3.95 a month for their cable modem. Find out how to avoid this fee and learn more about why they are charging it.AT&T's Plan for Rural America: Get a Cell PhoneOn Nov. 7, AT&T announced a plan that seeks to scrap rural American landlines, compelling customers to sign up for AT&T Wireless to continue home phone and broadband service. Abandoning the reliable rural landline has serious consequences for customers that will be indefinitely stuck with usage capped, expensive Internet access and potentially unreliable cell phone service.Community BroadbandWhy live with the poor choices and high prices offered by the local cable and phone company? You don't have to sit back and take what they give you anymore.An increasing number of communities are building their own fiber-to-the-home networks, delivering 21st century broadband service to local residents and businesses. Keep the economic benefits working right at home!Fight Back!You can take action right now to protect your broadband account from Internet Overcharging practices. Click the title "Fight Back" and learn how you can help get legislation passed to prohibit unjustified rate hikes.We are in the process of retiring the ancient Flash video technology that managed our embedded videos here since 2008. It was long overdue, but as a result, our embedded videos will be temporarily unavailable until we complete updating many of the nearly 4,700 articles on Stop the Cap! This process will be complete and the videos will be restored when this message disappears. Thanks for your patience!Phillip DampierPai s parting giftFearing the potential of Joe Biden replacing Donald Trump as president in next month s election, Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai will ram through a final vote to kill net neutrality while Republicans still have a majority on the Commission.At the final commissioners meeting on Oct. 27, just days before the U.S. election, Pai intends to take up net neutrality once again, primarily to deal with a demand by the D.C. Court of Appeals to address outstanding issues that came up when Republicans rescinded net neutrality rules that were put in place by the FCC under the Obama Administration. To drive the final stake into the heart of a free and open internet, Pai plans to quickly dismiss three issues of concern to the Court:how net neutrality impacts public safety;if it affected how the FCC deals with pole attachment regulation;if it hurts the FCC Lifeline program s ability to offer broadband to low-income Americans.In Pai s view, these are basically non-issues of concern and he intends to bring the matter before the Commission for a widely predicted party-line vote affirming the death of net neutrality policies under the Trump Administration.Pai took to Medium.com to write a smug and condescending editorial about why the pro-corporate deregulation policies he and his Republican colleagues have supported over the last four years have made American broadband great again. He called net neutrality supporters a bunch of Washington politicians, far-left special-interest groups, Hollywood stars, and Silicon Valley tech giants. He blasted the media for scaring the American people about what would happen after Trump s FCC killed the open internet order. He also claimed defeating net neutrality would lead to a renaissance of new investment in broadband.In fact, many broadband providers elected to curtail investment even before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. Charter, Comcast, AT T, and Verizon have all reduced investment in residential wired broadband services, in part because of a lack of competitive marketplace. Pai, a former lawyer for Verizon, has spent the last four years making life very comfortable for the country s largest internet service providers. He eliminated mandated competition in set-top boxes, did nothing to stop data caps, eliminated net neutrality protections, and helped enact new rules allowing mobile providers to place future cell towers and other equipment in places that have never been acceptable before.Most broadband providers today only compete on price for new customers. Once those promotions expire, customers face punishing bills. Internet pricing drew renewed scrutiny during the early days of the pandemic when schools and employers moved to at-home study and work. Many found internet pricing of $70+ a month unaffordable, while other suburban and exurban employees discovered they could not get suitably fast internet service at any price.Pai s tenure as chairman has been four years of smug arrogance and a complete disinterest in the input of consumers. Millions have told the FCC to leave net neutrality policies in place. Pai and his Republican colleagues ignored them. The Republican commissioners have delivered speeches at some of the most partisan right-wing groups imaginable, but won t respond to ordinary Americans looking for actual evidence of competition and consumer protection. For much of this year, Pai s two Republican colleagues have spent much of their time on Twitter pursuing their own agendas. Commissioner O Rielly has made closing down low power community pirate radio stations his obsession. At least that is covered under the FCC s mandate. Commissioner Carr has spent his time on Twitter complaining about people being mean to President Trump on social media, his obsession with China and freedom of speech, and his suspicions about the World Health Organization (WHO).This final attempt to destroy net neutrality just before the election is the ultimate insult, one that Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel fumed about: This is crazy. The internet should be open and available for all. That’s what net neutrality is about. It’s why people from across this country rose up to voice their frustration and anger with the Federal Communications Commission when it decided to ignore their wishes and roll back net neutrality. Now the courts have asked us for a do-over. But instead of taking this opportunity to right what this agency got wrong, we are going to double down on our mistake. The FCC is going to make it easier for broadband companies to block websites, slow speeds, and dictate what we can do and where we can go online. It’s insane that this is happening now, during a pandemic when we rely on internet access for so much of day-to-day life. It’s also cruel that this is our priority when this crisis has exposed just how vast our digital divide is and how much more work we have to do for broadband to reach 100% of us—no matter who we are or where we live. Share:EmailFacebookTwitterRedditLinkedInMorePrintPocketPinterestTumblrAT T stopped accepting orders for traditional DSL service from customers across its landline service area on Oct. 1, and will no longer allow existing customers to change speeds or transfer DSL service if they move to a new address.AT T sells three classes of wired internet service to residential customers:DSL: Traditional, old-fashioned DSL is sold primarily in rural and exurban areas that were never upgraded to AT T s U-verse service. Download speed is typically between 1-6 Mbps. This service is no longer available to new customers.U-verse: AT T s fiber-to-the-neighborhood service delivers 24 Mbps or faster download speed. AT T uses fiber optic cables between the central switching office and the customer s neighborhood, where it connects with existing copper wiring that runs down your street and into your home. Most AT T internet customers are still served by U-verse.Fiber: About 4.3 million former U-verse customers have been upgraded to AT T Fiber, the company s fiber to the home service. This upgrade eliminates the copper wiring that runs to your home, which provides for vastly faster internet speeds.Only AT T s DSL service has been discontinued. The company claims about a half million customers still get DSL service from AT T as of the second quarter of 2020. Most don t choose DSL by choice. It is often the only option, because the customer lives in a rural area where no other options for internet service exist. That may leave some new customers with no options for wired internet service at all. We are focused on enhancing our network with more advanced, higher speed technologies like fiber and wireless, which consumers are demanding, AT T said in a statement. We re beginning to phase out outdated services like DSL and new orders for the service will no longer be supported after October 1. Current DSL customers will be able to continue their existing service or where possible upgrade to our 100% fiber network.”AT T has been slowly expanding its wireless 4G LTE home internet service in select rural areas, but the service is unlikely to reach all the areas now shut out of DSL service.While AT T s rural customers have been left behind, prices for AT T Fiber are coming down, at least for new customers. Spectrum and Comcast have offered attractive new customer promotions in areas served by AT T, and the phone company is now responding with better offers. New customers can now get 100 Mbps from AT T Fiber for $35 a month, 300 Mbps for $45 a month, and 1,000 Mbps for $60 a month (all promotions good for 12 months and do not include equipment fees or taxes).Share:EmailFacebookTwitterRedditLinkedInMorePrintPocketPinterestTumblrVerizon has announced a significant expansion of its 4G LTE Home Internet service, now reaching 189 markets in 48 states.“This summer, we introduced LTE Home Internet in select pilot markets, and the response from customers was incredible,” said Frank Boulben, senior vice president of consumer marketing and products at Verizon. “It’s clear the need for connectivity has never been greater during these challenging times, that’s why today, we’re expanding LTE Home Internet to even more customers in rural areas of America who may not have access to broadband internet.”Indeed, most of the zip codes covered by Verizon s wireless home broadband service are in rural communities where demand on Verizon s 4G mobile network is likely much lower, with capacity to spare. The service is designed primarily for those living where DSL or cable broadband is not available.For $40 a month for existing Verizon mobile customers ($60 for non-customers), customers receive unlimited data with no data caps or throttles at download speeds between 25-50 Mbps. A $240 LTE Home router is also provided, after a $10 a month device payment plan promotional credit that lasts for 24 months. In other words, you technically owe $240 for the router, with a balance reduction of $10 for each month you stay a customer. If you remain a customer for two years, that $240 is reduced to $0.00. If you cancel before that, you owe whatever balance remains. Verizon promises the service is easy to self-install.The list of available zip codes is extensive, so you can download the current list here. Or verify precise availability by visiting: www.verizon.com/home/lte-home-internet.Share:EmailFacebookTwitterRedditLinkedInMorePrintPocketPinterestTumblrFrontier is the dominant phone company in West Virginia.The West Virginia Public Service Commission has ordered Frontier Communications to make significant improvements in its aging copper wire telephone network after a comprehensive investigation found the company s landline phone service and broadband to be lacking.The order comes two years after the state began investigating the phone company and six months after a service audit was completed. In the last year, 1,342 complaints about poor service were filed with the state s Public Service Commission. Frontier customers in this state remain plagued with service problems even as the customer base and the corresponding revenue declines. The Focused Management Audit was designed to find the underlying service quality problems, and possible solutions, in the hopes of placing Frontier on a better path, the report concluded.Over the past two years, Frontier gradually implemented some of the recommendations made by the state, particularly a more robust tree-trimming program to pre-emptively reduce tree-related outages and an automated system that can detect service issues and outages before customers call to complain. But Frontier s larger problem is its lack of investment in network upgrades, particularly related to replacing old copper wire infrastructure with fiber optics. The study identified the 25 worst exchanges in the state most plagued by service outages and complaints and demanded that Frontier rehabilitate or upgrade those areas to improve service. But the company has refused the Commission s request to deploy fiber optic connections to every cross-box in the state, which connects Frontier s network to neighborhood phone lines. Such an upgrade would dramatically reduce Frontier s reliance on copper wiring and improve phone and internet service.Frontier rejected the idea as unfeasible, claiming it would cost $100 million to complete fiber connections to each of Frontier s 3,255 existing cross box locations. If the company moved to digital phone service across those fiber lines, the cost would rise to $200 million, according to Frontier, adding it would have no choice but to pass these costs onto customers in the state. Given the exorbitant expense associated with such a comprehensive endeavor, the cost of voice service would consequently increase to unsustainable levels, the company claimed.Yet earlier this spring, at the height of the pandemic and after declaring bankruptcy, Frontier paid out $38 million in retention bonuses to its top executives, urging the same people who presided over the company as it went bankrupt to remain on the payroll at least until the bankruptcy was discharged.The state was given an early warning about Frontier s decreasing performance in July 2019 after an auditing firm found the company financially troubled and had cut back dramatically on ongoing maintenance spending. The auditor also reported Frontier was likely losing customers fast and would soon feel the financial pressure of lost revenue. Just as bad, the auditor reported Frontier s ability to stay ahead of its service problems could be compromised further by the likely retirement of more than half of the company s most experienced service technicians in the next five years.The auditor correctly predicted Frontier s financial health. The company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April and is reorganizing. The company claims it will exit bankruptcy in much better financial shape, with much of its debt discharged or renegotiated by creditors. In turn, Frontier has promised to boost investment in network fiber upgrades, but has not been specific about what areas it will target. A hearing to discuss some of these matters is scheduled for Oct. 28.Even with Frontier s imminent exit from bankruptcy, West Virginia officials remain concerned about the phone company s commitments and whether the new management will continue to honor earlier agreements with state officials.Share:EmailFacebookTwitterRedditLinkedInMorePrintPocketPinterestTumblrVerizon wireless plans: now more confusing than ever.The concept of unlimited data rarely means unlimited on mobile plans and it can get very confusing for consumers trying to figure out what each carrier defines as unlimited. Verizon has announced some plan changes that are not helping resolve this confusion.As of late last week, Verizon introduced a new version of its Unlimited Plus plan, which attaches to existing wireless plans for an extra $30 a month. Then, if you would like to connect more devices to your plan beyond your phone, you can sign up for an unlimited connected device plan and upgrade to Unlimited Plus for another $10 a month. If you have a tablet or hotspot, Verizon will sell you another unlimited plan for those for an extra $20 a month.What? Confusing!Customers enrolled in the older standard Unlimited Plus plan received unlimited data up to 15 GB before a speed throttle kicked in. The new Unlimited Plus offers unlimited-unlimited 5G and up to 30 GB of premium 4G LTE data. So it appears you get double the unlimited data as well as an infinite amount of 5G service which is probably not provided in your area (or if you turn the corner, or go indoors in an area that has the service). But if you are connecting a hotspot, laptop, or tablet to your plan, then Verizon redefines unlimited again, this time to mean up to 50 GB of 5G data (almost not available anywhere) and then you get speed throttled to 3 Mbps for the rest of the billing cycle, but just on those devices.Oh by the way, if you have an Apple Watch, Verizon has a plan for that as well, now priced at $10 a month, which gets you 15 GB of premium data, presumably on the watch.Share:EmailFacebookTwitterRedditLinkedInMorePrintPocketPinterestTumblrCancelPost was not sent - check your email addresses! Email check failed, please try again Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.

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