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Ajit Pai Killed Rules That Could Have Helped Florida Recover From Hurricane (arstechnica.com)
sharkbiter shares a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission chairman slammed wireless carriers on Tuesday for failing to quickly restore phone service in Florida after Hurricane Michael, calling the delay "completely unacceptable." But FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's statement ignored his agency's deregulatory blitz that left consumers without protections designed to ensure restoration of service after disasters, according to longtime telecom attorney and consumer advocate Harold Feld.
The Obama-era FCC wrote new regulations to protect consumers after Verizon tried to avoid rebuilding wireline phone infrastructure in Fire Island, New York, after Hurricane Sandy hit the area in October 2012. But Pai repealed those rules, claiming that they prevented carriers from upgrading old copper networks to fiber. Pai's repeal order makes zero mentions of Fire Island and makes reference to Verizon's response to Hurricane Sandy only once, in a footnote. Among other things, the November 2017 FCC action eliminated a requirement that telcos turning off copper networks must provide Americans with service at least as good as those old copper networks. This change lets carriers replace wireline service with mobile service only, even if the new mobile option wouldn't pass a "functional test" that Pai's FCC eliminated. Additionally, "in June 2018, Chairman Pai further deregulated telephone providers to make it easier to discontinue service after a natural disaster," Feld wrote. In response to Pai's deregulation, Feld wrote: "The situation in Florida shows what happens when regulators abandon their responsibilities to protect the public based on unenforceable promises from companies eager to cut costs for maintenance and emergency preparedness. This should be a wake-up call for the 37 states that have eliminated traditional oversight of telecommunications services and those states considering similar deregulation: critical communications services cannot be left without some kind of public oversight."
The Obama-era FCC wrote new regulations to protect consumers after Verizon tried to avoid rebuilding wireline phone infrastructure in Fire Island, New York, after Hurricane Sandy hit the area in October 2012. But Pai repealed those rules, claiming that they prevented carriers from upgrading old copper networks to fiber. Pai's repeal order makes zero mentions of Fire Island and makes reference to Verizon's response to Hurricane Sandy only once, in a footnote. Among other things, the November 2017 FCC action eliminated a requirement that telcos turning off copper networks must provide Americans with service at least as good as those old copper networks. This change lets carriers replace wireline service with mobile service only, even if the new mobile option wouldn't pass a "functional test" that Pai's FCC eliminated. Additionally, "in June 2018, Chairman Pai further deregulated telephone providers to make it easier to discontinue service after a natural disaster," Feld wrote. In response to Pai's deregulation, Feld wrote: "The situation in Florida shows what happens when regulators abandon their responsibilities to protect the public based on unenforceable promises from companies eager to cut costs for maintenance and emergency preparedness. This should be a wake-up call for the 37 states that have eliminated traditional oversight of telecommunications services and those states considering similar deregulation: critical communications services cannot be left without some kind of public oversight."
... Oh... there's more?
Captcha: executor
(You can't make things like this up...)
I have to say, restoring cell service is probably more important than copper service. Hardly anyone has landlines. Notice how they hardly mention that it is copper wires they are talking about ...
In light of Ajit Pai's decisions and their influence on this disaster, I would like to borrow some words from a former president, and state that Ajit Pai is doing one hell of a job.
Maybe he ought to go shit in the street.
What can be done to this killer that immediately impacts the mid-terms? Can he be sent to Arabia and stoned to death? Beheaded? Dismembered? Remembered? Is he another Putin stooge? Does he answer to Trump? Does he answer to his name? What kind of name is that? Is he a rapist? Does he like beer? Who is this Ajit person, and should I care?
Let us put this in perspective. Because the market should drive the response.. right? This article clearly calls out Verizon's response from the previous tragedy of Hurricane Sandy (even though that was about wired phone service).
Fast-forward to this latest environmental impact.. and again... Verizon's response sucks more than the Mega-Maid in Space-balls. Verizon's lack of a legitimate restoration plan from Hurricane Sandy... well... means they don't care about the bottom line. They are just as many businesses do.. marginalizing the bottom line.
As much as I hate my current carrier... AT&T rolled in many portable cell stations after Hurricane Michael and they are still there today... serving their customer base. Verizon has not provided this response. As a matter of fact... I'd bet Paul Marcelli is happy he's now the voice of Sprint.
Peace out.
Here, on the other side of the pond, the telecoms quickly turned the wire lines into wireless links without any catastrophe as soon as technology was there. The helicopter assisted wood cutting to prevent snow induced damage on the lines was probably just too expensive. Regulating a level of service and preparedness is a different from regulating an implementation. Still, the penalties for the industry are needed even more in the abstract case to make the message clear and concrete.
Doing the math, That's 1.6% of total Florida Households and around 10% of Georgean Households with Zero Telephony service; No cell or Landline, no internet.
Large swaths of rural landscape, small towns and villages containing millions of people literally have no ability to call for emergency services. No ability to dial 911 for help, to report a burglary. No Burglar alarms for houses or businesses.
What could go wrong?
When Katrina hit New Orleans and wiped out a good chunk of the city, drug gangs from Mexico famously began moving in, thinking the US wasn't going to rebuild or was just too weak. You had blackwater agents, same as the guys in Iraq, deputized and operating in neighborhoods. There were rumors of tanks being deployed and several buildings being leveled because of that activity, e.g. MS13 moved into a hospital to setup permanent shop due to the supplies and infrastructure available for making drugs and that hospital was allegedly leveled.
Best part? Only when videos make it out of the operating theatre and onto youtube or liveleak do you get to see what was going on. There is no live streaming of anything. The blackwater guys know that; video recording is recon to them.
That's the last time you had this many people without communications infrastructure.
Taking away emergency services communication is not something to take lightly. You run the risk of foreign governments running camps and hiding munitions on your soil, and you also run the risk of criminals using areas as hide-outs from which they plan much larger crimes.
Ajit is playing with fire and has no idea what he is doing. You're looking at a fall guy in the making.
So what do these rules have to do with VERIZON not working to repair their network after a weather event? Isn't it in their own self interest to get there as quick as possible to repair their cell towers to get service BACK to their paying customers instead of gov forcing them to do it? All this sounds to me is Liberals trying to push an agenda that doesn't even make 1 lick of sense.
hate Ajit Pai.
Defunding Planned Parenthood kills women, babies and children.
You DO realize what Planned Parenthood does, don't you, when you talk about "killing babies and children"?
in case anyone's wondering what's being referred to here.
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The Democratic party is just as evil, they simply have different hideous alliances.
The guy works for us and does a terrible job.
How can we fire him?
You do realize it's been shown time and time again that when planned parenthood is properly funded along with proper healthcare in areas actual abortions go down? Hmmm.... almost like planned parenthood actually... helps family plan for children. *shocker*
Considering a fetus is not a baby or child, unless you're a religious fucked in the head zealot...
About 45% of pregnancies are either miscarriages or failure to implants. The ~30% that are miscarriages could be decreased because of the 95%of what Planned Parenthood actually does... medical assistance to would be mothers. But,absolute dipshits with their heads up their ass... like you... disparage them for the other 5% of their activities: providing abortions to women who choose that option.
You want to confront the real mass destroyer of fetuses? Talk to God. All the miscarriages, all the failures to implant.... that's God.
Now, killing actual babies and children...that'd be not providing medical care for them, or food, or shelter. That'd be the GOP and conservative religious fucktards.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Bullshit, drink your oil faggot.
That is simply a lie.
Most abortions are caused by birth control failure. When you use a product that is 99.9% effective to prevent the consequences of an act that you do 300 times a year then it's almost a sure thing that you'll end up hitting that .01%.
So push contraception and you guarantee you'll have abortion customers.
Want to prevent pregnancy? Don't have sex. Actions have consequences.
We won't even talk about the large scale human experimentation that has resulted by exposing hundreds of millions of women to a poorly tested set of drugs, which are coincidentally entering our environment through the waste processing of urine and having who knows what effect on the rest of the environment.
Just another pile of BS brought to you by The United Corporations of America.
Why are we not continuing to forcing a private entity to support deprecated technology because people refuse to move on?
While we're at it, let's force Microsoft to continue to support MS-DOS and Windows 3.1.
Linus should be regulated into supporting Version 1.0 of the kernel.
Let's get some legislation to make it illegal for Google to stop supporting my Motorola Droid running Gingerbread.
Wireless and fiber services are shit. Let's get that copper back up and running post haste! I need my 768/128 DSL line back online immediately! Because I'm positive Verizon, et al. are not going to ever be fixing any of the cellphone towers knocked out by the worst hurricane to hit the gulf in 60 years! I mean, it's been over a fucking week! Because in my dream utopia....you know, if only the government were in charge of the infrastructure, I'm sure it would be number one on Orange Hitler(tm)'s list!
So much edge in one post. Aren't there some midterms you need to be studying for?
Yup, got it already.
To cell. Why should I subsidise inferior technology?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Lets assume for a moment that something Ajit Pai said was true (no seriously stick with me for a moment, however unlikely this premise is). Why is the answer to a poor regulation that seems to affect a minor edge case to repeal? If the regulation impeded carriers upgrading, then add verbiage to the regulation that allows them to upgrade while still being bound to the original regulation.
It could very well be that the regulation did catch edge cases that made them restrictive. I haven't read regulation but if it contains the text "service at least as good" then it should be modified (NOT SCRAPPED) but modified to instead list the specific service requirements that need to be met.
Should the market drive the response. The corporations have defined the market, not the consumer. The theory of market-driven response is predicated on consumers having a choice.
Where you have de-facto local monopolies or duopolies due to arrangements between telecos, the consumer has no choice. Likewise when information is so limited that choice does not exist.
Does anyone seriously believe most of those affected had a free choice from a diverse market, with full information on choices? If they do, they need to take a serious look at what they consider diverse or information.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I lived in an area where Verizon ran out FiOS. There were some towns/cities where the locals opposed switching over to fiber because they already had cable for Internet access.
This whole situation is utterly ridiculous all because cable TV started as a luxury non-telecom service, then became one once DOCSIS was implemented. Yet they don't want to be regulated like telecoms. (And now the telecoms are doing the same thing.)
The dynamics are a bit more complex, but the poster was not lying.
Access to abortion actually does reduce abortion rates. It also increases the safety of them.
Abortion rates have gone up dramatically in States that have reduced access to nearly zero. One can argue that that's because contraception access is also nearly zero, as is sex education. That's fair. However, the three are linked. The attitudes restricting one restrict them all.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Ideally Democrats work for the betterment of society. I suspect many believe they do and that a decent percentage actually do.
I'd love to see the Democratic party improve on that and genuinely work for the betterment of all. It means kicking out Ayn Rand supporters, plus Neocons/Reaganites in Democrat clothing. It means recognizing Sanders is considered right-wing in Europe and looking at whether those European ideals would help or harm Americans.
But for now, Democrats do not meet their ideals to the degree anyone would like. They swung to the right, in response to the Tea Party goons, and are now the party of Reagan.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
OK, I'll bite. What is it, then? It's a serious question. You are saying that the product of a conception between a man and a woman is not a human. What else is it, then?
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
regulation kills many millions more people every year but liberal bias slashdot.org never talks about that. jee i wonder why?
When you use a product that is 99.9% effective to prevent the consequences of an act that you do 300 times a year then it's almost a sure thing that you'll end up hitting that .01%.
So which is it? .1% is 1 in 1,000. This is not the same as .01%, which is 1 in 10,000.
If it's the former, then 300/1000 = 30%. That's less than 1 in 3 and not what I'd call "almost a sure thing".
BTW, 300 times per year is about 4 times the average for married couples.
Also, "not perfect = worthless" is a pretty silly way to view the world in any case.
As for experimentation, various people have been trying to tell other people not to have sex for a few thousand years, and the results of such efforts have been mixed at best.
The argument that removing the old law requiring replacement with comparable wired service slowed down the restoration of service to hurricane victims is silly. First, cell service can be restored much more quickly than wired service in these situations no matter what. Second, having this law in place is not going to make the phone repairmen working on the poles go any faster than they already are.
Huuuuuuuuuggge argument for VoIP that is not carrier dependent.
And if you shop around, VoIP is dirt cheap compared to cellular. Pennies on the dollar dirt cheap.
Fuck Verizon. Anyone still with Big Red at this point is just getting reddogged right in the face with a big red wet verizon schlong. And liking it.
Is clearly a millennial. He's killing ALL THE THINGS!!1!
I kind of imagine most of the places that are affected by this are rural, low income, low population density areas. This defines many red states fairly accurately outside of their one or two towns they try to call cities. In a way, they are getting the government they voted for.
Now if only the same government that won't protect consumers would stop handing out monopolies to companies offering essential services and we could see the good side of deregulation, instead of just seeing the shitty side.
Alas, we all know that is exceedingly unlikely to happen short of a revolution.
You people are literally insane. Obsessed with Ajit Pai.
Get help. Soon.
After a hurricane (I live in FL my whole life and have been through many of them) the most important thing is power for A/C. Without A/C nothing else matters. Trust me.
It won't help. This is just part of the usual playbook to make all faults real & imagined one named person's fault. Everything bad will be because they wanted it to happen because they hate you and/or are corrupt.
It doesn't matter if he has nothing to do with Verizon's crappy service or what he could do about it and it won't even matter if he tries to fix the rules later after learning of problems, it's all his fault, personally, and all the problems will go away once the people who replace him with someone they prefer get their way because they'll stop the media campaign.
It's not a human yet. Until it's a fetus it is nothing more than some cells. Killing cells != killing a baby. Those cells did not mutate into a human YET.
Now past a certain trimester; fine. My body my rules. Leave your hands off of it.
It's funny, rich white men discussing what a woman should be able to do with her body. That's rich.
Considering a fetus is not a baby or child
OK, I'll bite. What is it, then?
A fetus. That's literally the word for what it is.
It's a serious question.
No, it's utterly disingenuous rhetoric.
You are saying that the product of a conception between a man and a woman is not a human.
Nope. You just made that up.
What else is it, then?
The premise of your position is that anything other than a baby or a child isn't human, which I don't think you've thought though. For example, an adult isn't a baby or child. Are adults non-human too in your opinion?
Not that I'm particularly found of communist / socialist countries since the smarter half of that bunch has realized that a free market is the way to success... but right-wing proponents of "minimum state" soon discover that the minimum is not the same as sufficient.
I feel sorry for those wiser guys who didn't vote for the guys currently in office, but take this opportunity to reflect on ways to improve democracy, so that instead of meaning just the victory of the majority it becomes capable to protect all minorities.
Why is the pro life crowd always the ones telling people to kill themselves, or trying to get rid of social services, or fighting against health care?
You guys don't give a shit about human life. Stop pretending already
In September 2018 Ottawa was hit was hit with six tornadoes and parts of the city were without power for over 48 hours. I was without it for 48 hours. The cell towers near me went down after a couple of hours, as long as their batteries lasted. The cell companies were rushing around to try and get generators hooked up to their equipment.
The reception with the generators supplying electricity was terrible. I could get my mail a couple of times but no other data for the rest of the event. I could make calls though. My neighbour could only access data on his phone if he went to the end of his driveway in one spot. As soon as the electricity came back on all of the problems with the data were gone.
The cell companies used to be required to keep backup power on site but that restriction was loosened a while ago to make it easier/more profitable for the companies.
With 5G it's going to be terrible in a disaster when the cell points are going to be distributed all over instead of the relatively few cell towers. If a company has their antennas distributed on street lights throughout a city then how are they going to have backup power?