FCC ‘Investigating’ Repeated Broadband Industry Coverage Lies
from the same-old-same-old dept
After years of criticism about their inaccuracy, the FCC recently spent another $50 million (on top of the $350 million they’d already spent) on supposedly better broadband maps. But the end result is still a bit of a mess, with entrenched telecom monopolies like Comcast being repeatedly caught claiming to deliver broadband in areas that can’t receive service. Often to glean subsidies the company doesn’t deserve.
And while the FCC has implemented a “challenge process” for those trying to correct the maps, numerous municipal leaders and telecom lawyers tell me that process has been a bit of a hot mess. That’s a problem, as folks line up to grab their share of more than $50 billion in new broadband subsidies made possible by Covid relief and the infrastructure bill.
Not too surprisingly, Comcast is hoovering up the lion’s share of new funding. And not too surprisingly, Comcast keeps getting caught lying about its own broadband coverage. ISPs have spent decades fighting against better maps, knowing full well that if data more concretely shows market failure and a lack of competition, regulators might get the crazy idea to actually do something about it.
The FCC says it’s investigating, for whatever that winds up being worth:
In response to questions about the FCC’s coverage map inaccuracies from members of Congress, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a Feb. 3 letter that “we have taken several steps to prevent systematic overreporting of coverage by broadband service providers.”
“In fact, we already have an investigation underway,” Rosenworcel wrote.
That said, Rosenworcel doesn’t have much of a reputation for making waves with major telecom giants. And keep in mind Comcast is one of several companies waging a sleazy smear campaign against FCC nominee Gigi Sohn to scuttle her nomination, ensuring that the agency lacks the voting majority to do anything deemed remotely controversial by industry. Including holding industry accountable.
Having covered this sector for longer than I’d like, I absolutely guarantee that while this funding is going to be a huge help in some areas (especially for municipalities, cooperatives and city-owned utilities), you’re going to see an unprecedented torrent of fraud complaints as the infrastructure money starts to flow. And without a reformer like Sohn pushing them to action, I suspect the FCC won’t have the kind of backbone required to hold anybody meaningfully accountable. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Filed Under: broadband, broadband maps, digital divide, fcc, gigi sohn, high speed internet, infrastructure bills, subsidies, telecom
Comments on “FCC ‘Investigating’ Repeated Broadband Industry Coverage Lies”
All that money is just going to line the pockets of Comcast investors while they do the bare minimum they think they can get away with. Flair.gif.
Confirm Sohn
It couldn’t hurt if the Senate could get it together and finally confirm Gigi Sohn.
Re:
Couldn’t hurt whom? That’s kind of what the holdup is about.
They only stole a few billion from the USF, we can trust them to not rip us off this time…
Too many in politics getting too much in ‘encouragements’ to get anything different done. Yes, if Biden actually got gigi enrolled, things could drastically improve but when the government throws tax payers money at broadband companies like a man with no arms then refuses to claw back, withhold payments and get threatened by those companies that things they aren’t doing will take longer, what chance is there?
If we had a FCC wish list, what would it look like?
Here’s mine, what am I missing or mistaken about?
A peek at municipal radio systems needs to take place, I’m missing why this market is dominated by Motorola. I know that other’s quality exceeds Motorola as of about 20 years ago, but I almost never see those competitors in the wild.
Help me out here – I know I’m missing things.
Re:
Just a bundle of bribes. But those are tied to the authority of making decisions.
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Thanks for sharing. It is very helpful for me and also informative for all those users who will come to read.
I reported that Verizon does not actually offer Residential 5G at my address. Two months later I got an email from Verizon asking me to explain why I reported they didn’t offer the service to my address. I responded that I spoke to a Verizon sales person on the phone in 2022 and they told me it wasn’t available. The next day a Verizon sales person knocked on my door trying to upsell their Residential 5G.
TBH, I’m not a fan of the FCC giving my email and address to Verizon.
To much fun, again
I find it strange that the design of the stock exchange was so that companies could leverage needing abit of money to advance there setup and design to BE BETTER.
Then that changed, and Now the gov. thinks its NICE to give a few bucks to those in need. But in the recent past, they have NEVER demanded a return on investment, Nor a return of the money not Spent or Failure to accomplish What they said.
US gov. USED to want tons of paper work dont for that money and had people watching over to see what was done. WHERE ARE THEY?
Job function and problems
There’s some issues, that’s for sure!
The FCC needs to do its job. No doubt.
But, the federal government really should (have, long ago), create a federal broadband rollout. To ever door and empty lot on the country.
And
A national broadband service at a fixed rate of synchronous bandwidth.
Then cable and telco could have a competitive Base line.
What concerns me is congress has a tendency to pork list bills.
The LAST thing I want to see is bundles lost for ala-cart rollout.
And
I definitely don’t want to see more bull monopoly nonsense forcing breakups.
We don’t need to break up companies, we need quality competition
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