Senator Schumer Incorrectly Harps On Cellcos
I’ve been critical of Senator Charles Schumer before, saying that the senator seems to have an unreasonable animosity toward the wireless industry, and even as he criticizes it, he expects it to solve all the worlds problems – not just mobile communications, but flawless communications, unlimited capacity, emergency locating services, and the ability to operate through a 24 hour blackout. Now it seems Schumer has been caught exaggerating the evils of the cellular industry again. A list of all the cellular deadspots in NYC was taken down from Senator Schumer’s website two weeks ago after it was proven that the locations the Senator said were dead spots actually had adequate cellular coverage. It’s not just a case of his list being out of date: it was only created in October. A spokesperson for Schumer said, “There’s no drama” about the list being taken down, they’re just too busy right now to put it back up… Sure. Cellular telephony is not an industry that has exploding gas tanks, toxic waste, or is killing babies, so why the attacks? Some of the senator’s ongoing criticism, and calls for technologies and changes that are being implemented anyway is nothing more than grandstanding for constituents. But, hey, I’m not a telco shill: a website that correctly identifies signal strengths and deadspots for each carrier would be a great aid for consumers. The carriers all know where their deadspots are, and they should be required to provide that information to the public, as the carriers are in other countries (England, for example.) But that would point to a regulatory failure by our government, not our profit-minded businesses.
