Slashdot Mirror
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 But Pai repealed those rules, claiming that they prevented carriers from upgrading old copper networks to fiber.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 But Pai repealed those rules, claiming that they prevented carriers from upgrading old copper networks to fiber.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."
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.
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.
Some sentences should end early to be good.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What do you expect from Ashit Pile?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
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.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I gotta admit, I laughed at those parts.
#DeleteFacebook
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
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?
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)
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)
That's just it. We the people was a big con. Government works for itself, not you. That's why it needs all the immunity and protections against the public.
America has always been based on the idea that the public and government are mortal enemies that survive by crushing the other. It's so central to the mythos that even though 2A never refers to that and in fact states the exact opposite, in the debates on 2A the focus was on who crushes who.
You cannot fire anyone in government. You cannot recall the president (you don't even elect him), you cannot sack any civil servant, you are powerless. By design. That is the way the founding fathers wanted it.
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
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.
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.
Woah there. Pai is a terrible human being but there's no need to punish innocent Indians with his presence.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
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?