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Verizon Permitted to Default on PA Broadband Deal
Rich writes "This is simply amazing to me. Broadband Reports has the latest chapter concerning Verizon's con of Pennsylvania unearthed by telco-critic Bruce Kushnick last February. A 1994 agreement between Verizon and the state of Pennsylvania paid dividends to Verizon in excess of $2.1 Billion in tax cuts and other deregulatory goodies over the years. Verizon's part of that deal was to deploy 45Mbps symmetrical fiber service fiber to PA homes and residents by 2015 (something they knew would never happen). This week the well-lobbied state has apparently voted to totally ignore the 1995 agreement, after Verizon's already walked away with the cash, leaving PA residents (who are already pretty low on the broadband food chain according to a new report) high and dry."
By about 9am, once their slow connections download Slashdot's pages.
The unsurprising truth about most such affairs is that governments rarely spend money because it benefits their constituents, they generally spend it because it benefits their friends, and themselves. How much of Verizon's money went straight back to the people making the decision? 10%? 15%? 20%?
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to be a Pennsylvanian state legislator when the tax payers find out about all this. Too bad that the real bastards ( at Verizon) won't pay as high a price. Plus most of the legislators that made the original deal in 1994 probably aren't in office anymore. It dosen't sound like they put many checks or penalties into the agreement.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
I know this is slashdot, but before I condemn "the capitalist pigs and their puppets in the government," I would like to know the whole story.
"I know this is slashdot, but before I condemn "the capitalist pigs and their puppets in the government," I would like to know the whole story."
;-)
Nah, as Asimov said: it's far easier to argue from ignorance
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
..A leaflet from Verizon appeared in the paper. $35/mo for DSL. I laughed, checked their website, and I still can't get it in my area.
And I can only get cable from a single provider, whom I had dial-up account issues with in the past. (To say nothing of the people I know who do have cable modems from them - chock full of not-goodness.)
I'm not out in Backwater Boonies, either. I'm between a major metropolitan area, and a small city.
Pennsylvania. The broadband sucks, the roads suck, the tech job market sucks, and we're swimming in old people(tm). Not that the latter's bad, but retirees don't make for a good economy.
I pronounce this state befukt.
my parents operate a home business just outside of a suburban area, roughly 10 miles from a midsized PA city (pop ~100k). the ancient POTS wiring is so poor that no ISP can give more than 28.8kbps actual throughput on a 56k modem.
adelphia has decided to stop its cable wire roughly a mile from my parents house, and they are too far from the switch for DSL. thus an entire small town has been left behind, to sign up for DirecTV or have fun with the old rabbit-ear antennas.
when websites started becoming very unfriendly to slower connections, i investigated the possibilities for faster service. the two that emerged were direcPC (satellite) with absurdly high latency, complete assymetry, and an obscene fee, or ISDN from Verizon with an equally obscene fee for a (largely) obsolete technology.
since 28.8 is becoming really unacceptable (updating a web browser is a real chore), i investigated the ISDN option verizon supposedly offers...2 months later verizon will still not return my calls or email regarding a residential or business ISDN line...they are simply not interested in a lone installation of an aging technology, or may not want to admit that universal availability of ISDN is a sham. i do not know.
bottom line--only provider actually willing to provide >28.8 service is satellite...10 miles from a city in a northeastern state! they might as well live in rural montana for all the 'information age' cares.
U.S. War Crimes blog. Email for free Mandriva support.
or campaign contribution will do.
Poor people incurred frothing, hateful wrath of the middle class for getting money for food and rent. Yet these large, powerful corporations walk away with bagfuls of money every day and it's "ho-hum, what else is new?" How bad is it going to have to get before you get angry enough to do something?
<a href="http://www.joblessjimmy.com">Work is dumb and so is Jobless Jimmy.</a>
This is playing right into the cable modem provider's hands. They have a more reliable, more widly available, (arguably) faster, and easier to set up service. In State College (PSU's college town) nearly everyone I know has either Adelphia's or CEI's cable modem service, almost nobody has Verizon's DSL. Even those that are lucky enough to now live in servicable areas still went with cable when it was the only thing around, and really have no reason to switch. By the time DSL actually IS an option for most people around here, they will have already gone with cable.
Finkployd
However, before I condemn Verizon, I have some questions
Condemn first; ask questions later! This is Verizon we're talking about.
Where have you been for the past ten years. Big Corps. screwing the little guy, along with the government. Whoda'thunkit. Something needs to be changed here, and "being amazed" won't cut it. Protests, boycotts, and contacting your rep.!
Dear Constituent,
Thank you for writing Senator Buymeov regarding your concerns about corporate greed. Unfortunately, due to the large volume of mail received by the Senator each day, combined with his complete lack of caring about you, your mail was fed directly through this automated reply system, and then incinerated. No real person will ever read your message, and the Senator's staffers actually spend each Friday night eating Chinese takeout and laughing at the poor fuckers who write in thinking anyone cares.
The Senator cares deeply about lining his own pockets and understands the benefits of corporate greed first-hand. Last year, the Senator voted to elinimate consumer rights and managed to rake in a cool $4.5million in various "gifts" and campaign donations from corporate sponsors. Senator Buymeov will continue to work hard to ensure you have no voice in government.
Thank you again for contacting us -- your participation in our government is what makes life worth living! (HAHAhahahahah!)
Sincerely,
Fake signature of Senator Buymeov
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
People laugh at This guy for spending a couple billion to bring a 12Mbps connection to (everyone) in Japan for $21 a month; Sure his company is in $3.9 billion debt, but he has something to show for it! His customers have a 12 Mbps internet connection!!!1
12 years ago I had a 2400 baud modem on a telephone line I shared with 7 others in a student home. these days most rooms in student housing have free 100Mbit in each room. and (no longer a student) I have 2048/512 adsl for 65 euro/month in my own apartment.
In another 12 years I would expect at least another factor of 1000 increase in easily available bandwitdh.
this is in the netherlands, ( which is probably different from Pennsylvania ), but still.
willem
If the tax breaks were given for a specific purpose, and that purpose fails to be fulfilled, can the tax breaks be revoked? Retroactively?
C'mon, surely the IRS can do something here? I mean, they can invade a person's privacy and levy fines and such without much due process - think how much more fun it would be going after $2.1Billion...
How about a plain statement of the facts on PA newsmedia? "Verizon was awarded $2Bn in tax breaks, and is unable to deliver the goods..." Should have some effect on their stock, I would think. And as it's true (approved by the gov't, no less!), they can't get it censored as libel/slander...
there's more going on here than just bribery. $2.1 billion is too much money for legislature reps to walk away from. I mean, the votes you could buy with that kind of money far outweight whatever campaign contributions where involved. Maybe I'm wrong (it's possible that all this is happening so quietly no one's really noticed besides the /. crowd). But this is a hell of a lot of money for the legislatures to just kiss goodbye.
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Hello, I live in an area outside of a small town in Pennslyvania, and i am about 1/2 mile away from two way cable modem, i got stuck with one way. With the lovely technology known as one-way i have to go through verizon for the upload (local phone company). When i talked to a tech support person at Verizon, i was told "28.8 is an acceptable speed" . I am in area where I can not get two-way cable or dsl, so whoever gets to my area first will gain 47 new customers, and I have the petition to prove it. My tax dollars are NOT getting spent well at all in my opinion. That money that was given to Verizon could of probably been used for the public library funds they are trying to cut in this state....
I knew the telecom industry was sleazy what with practices like slamming and whatnot, but now it seems to have gotten downright criminal.
It looks like Verizon just ignored it's contract with the state of PA.
In my own state Qwest (we put the 'w' in qwality) has been under investigation for shady financials.
Anybody else been noticing a general contempt for the general population from the telecoms?
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
Guy walks through the Pennsylvania state house
"Can you pay me now?"
"Goooood."
Verizon, PECo (now Exelon) all own our politicians lock stock and barrel. It's not right, but that is how it's done in PA. Anyway, I have Verizon DSL and it works quite well. I don't have down-time more than maybe a couple times a year - usually due to heavy storm activity. I wish it was cheaper but the cable company is a monopoly too and will rip me off just the same. PA does not like competition - it stifles political graft.
Not sure what you meant by this comment. There was a /. story a couple of days ago about 12Mb/s broadband access in Japan for $21 a month, which I'm sure is a situation a lot of people here would like to end up in (judging by the comments to the article).
In fact, because NTT is state-run, the government is very good at ensuring adequate competition- a bill was just passed forcing NTT to cut the rates it charges competitors for use of its lines. So I'd say that the telecom situation in Japan isn't that bad.
Sono koro, bokura wa, sore ga sekai no shinjitsu da to shinjite ita.
I live in a suburb of Philadelphia, and currently Comcast provides excellent cable-modem service. I have yet to really test the maximum download speed, but I'm guessing it's in the vacinity of 3200-4000kbps, while the upload rate was recently upgraded from 128kbps to 240kbps. Most ping times are also excellent. Of course, I did have to put up with many, many years of dealing with a 56k internet connection, but once the cable modem was availible, all was great. I suppose the moral of the story is: good things come to those who wait.
;) I can only guess they do some kind of routine maintinance which sometimes disrupts the connection.
Of course, the service is not without faults... sometimes it goes down around 3-4am and comes back around 6-7am, when I guess they figure no one is using it, which isn't true, especially during the summer
"Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose." --Douglas Adams
Cliffnotes version:
Verizon says that they can wire the state for $X.
Legislators say 'We can't give you $X, but we can cut you a tax break'
With $X cut off their expenses, Verizion stock raises. Options are cashed. Resultant stock is sold for hefty profit.
Dot-com bubble bursts.
PA is left rubbing its ass, Verizon scales back, C*o's laugh all the way to the bank.
Verizon management states that it is impossible to do what they promised because the (choose one or more):
A)Economy
B)Lack of infrastructure
C)Technology did not keep pace
D)Management found out what Fiber actually is
E)Hackers
F)Lack of demand
G)Sunspots
(Editors note: This comment is purely speculation, and should be treated as such by all parties currently or previosly employed by Verizon, its subsidiaries, or anyone in a position to sue my ass off.)
The real point of this article is not to inflame the reader about corporate greed and political scandal. As long as you haven't been living under a log for your entire life, you should be well aware of this.
The article shows me that simply a mistake was found by some intelligent people in state government, and it was repealed. The only reasonable alternative in this case was that Verizon continued to have its state-paid benefits for 11 more years, which is unreasonable. Thank God that the Mennonites decided to take their heads out of their rears now instead of later.
If you're incensed about the fact that Verizon got off "scott-free", then get over it. That kind of thing can't be fixed. Who's going to pay back the state of Pennsylvania? A company always hovering near rock-bottom? Where is Verizon going to get all the cash to pay the state back? Even worse, why would Verizon ever have to pay back money that was due to it by contract?
Supplying fiber to every home in PA was a joke. I'm just glad that they caught this in 2003 instead of waiting until the year 2015 to whine about it.
GO LEGISLATURE!
I think the main problem with broadband is the method ISPs charge for Internet access. I propose that, since broadband ISPs are virtually a monopoly, they should all just get switch away from flat rates and charge per bytes transferred. RIAA will be happy too since the cost of bandwidth will then effectively eliminate many P2P swappers. ISPs will then have more money and will be able to provide service to more areas.
i think there are plenty of other things going on here, and I think it's good you raised the right questions.
I use Verizon and in PA. We just got a notice in the mail a few weeks back saying our DSL monthly is going down (yes - down) in cost. I dont know if this was a factor or not, but I wouldnt be surprised.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Depending on how much you want to pursue ISDN and forcing Verizon to do something, one option might be the PUC. First, you'll have to find out if Verizon is supposed to have universal access to ISDN throughout the state with the PUC, you should also be able to find out the business and residential tarriffs as well. Assuming they do, next time you call Verizon, advise them what you have discovered at the PUC and that you will be calling and filing a formal complaint if you are unable to get the service at the tarriffed price.
I remember when I worked in PA (in the wireless biz, central and north-central part of the state). Dial up internet access was almost a joke, but at least it was there. This was in 1995/1996 timeframe. Though at one point I had to use AOL for internet connectivity in 1995.
PA is one of the states where I remember working with a group designing a wireless network for one of the blocks of spectrum auctioned off around 1996.. it was going to be used for the "last mile" type of connections. Sounds like things haven't improved much there, and there's still a great opportunity for that spectrum, too bad the financial people tried to cut out the engineering people near the end, and the rest of the group walked as a result.
. 62,400 repetitions make one truth -- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
There is one thing you are overlooking... money.
Yes, the politicians are voted in. But money plays a HUGE role in all this. What money does, among other things, is enable you to carry out actions that you otherwise wouldn't be able to. For example, advertising and other mass "brainwashing" campaigns. I hate to say it but humans fall for that kind of stuff. After all, how can you possibly explain how Americans fought a war in Iraq without any evidence, or how most Americans don't even know they invaded Panama, or they were behind the brutal regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala? The answer lies in information and brainwashing techniques... If politicians or governments didn't carry out these activities then what you are saying will be true: people voting should be responsible.
On a related point, regardless of who wins, the winner will always grant special rights to people donated the most money to his/her campaign. Make no mistake about it. This is why wealthy individuals, unions and corporations donate a lot of money to parties (no, they are not doing it because they are charitable--in particular, for-profit bodies like corporations are certainly not charitable). Once somone is elected, they grant ACCESS to their close confidants, party donors, etc. What this means is that whoever that donated to the party or the person will have greater ACCESS. Will this translate into a benefit for the donor? In most cases, yes.
For all these reasons (and many more), countries like USA are really plutocracies--not democracy! If you don't think so, just look around. Study countries and see what happens. Americans (or Canadians or French or whatever) feel proud that they are running a "democracy" but this is no different than in a developing country. There is little difference...
KoalaBear33
......The worst thing in my life happened when the stock market started mattering more than the economy
Actually, I agree with the second poster: you overlooked money. You did address it but you utterly failed to address why it's important. Basically, an uninformed or misinformed electorate is not able to participate in a democracy properly. Money is used to create and perpetuate the state where the mass of the electorate cast their votes under totally false beliefs. In that sense, money does equal votes.
Some of us do make the effort to go beyond CNN/Fox/<insert vast faceless corporate newsmachine here> but it takes time and a lot of effort which most people don't have. So, when they vote, the vote the way the money has told them to.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
You may think you have some control over the reigns of power, but look closely at any political system - an I challenge you to find one on earth that proves me wrong - and you will find a marketplace in which powerful men trade their power. Money, favors, other kinds of power... that is what politics and big business is about.
You do not spend money randomly - why you believe so optimistically that those in power do?
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