[P2P-F] Fwd: Fast Lane, Slow Lane -- "No Lane" -- End Game in Telecommunications

Fri Sep 26 08:31:12 CEST 2014

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bruce Kushnick <bruce at newnetworks.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 12:04 PM
Subject: Fast Lane, Slow Lane -- "No Lane" -- End Game in Telecommunications
To:

 (Excerpted from the new book: *The Book of Broken Promises: $400 Billion
Broadband Scandal and Free the Net
<http://newnetworks.com/bookofbrokenpromises.htm>**) *

* Fast Lane, Slow Lane -- "No Lane" -- End Game in Telecommunications*

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/fast-lane-slow-lane--no-l_b_5865996.html

 Forget about Net Neutrality's fast lane vs slow lane. We are at the end
game in telecommunications and we should all be talking about the "No Lane".

Net Neutrality is like one of those Rorschach Tests used in psychological
examinations where everyone sees something different in the same picture.
With a record 3.7 million comments filed at the FCC in the Open Internet
proceeding,
<http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/16/6257887/fcc-net-neutrality-3-7-million-comments-made>
as of September 15th, 2014, one thing is clear -- America is angst-ridden
about something.

The most common theme in the last round of comments filed is now
the-easy-to-remember chant -- "fast lane vs slow lane", while over the last
decade it has referred to the blocking or degrading of service.

But the truth is -- the angst is not only from 'Net Neutrality'. According
to an ACSI survey,
<http://bgr.com/2014/05/20/comcast-twc-customer-satisfaction-survey-study/>
in 2014, Comcast and Time Warner are leading the list as the "most hated
companies in America", while "ISPs", (actually the phone and cable
companies, including AT&T and Centurylink) were also at the bottom of
customer satisfaction.

While Net Neutrality focuses on important issues, it doesn't address or
cure anything to do with stopping the "No Lane"-- the end game if AT&T,
Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner continue on their path. These companies
are the incumbent wireline and cable companies that control most of the
wires in the US and that also means that they control all wireless
services. Control of the wires also gives them control over all services,
including competitor services, but more importantly it gives them the
ability to control who gets upgraded and who doesn't, or what prices
customers' pay, or worse, who will be 'shut off' and end up in a 'Digital
Dead Zone'.

How bad is the broadband 'landscape'?

A recent speech by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler
<http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db0904/DOC-329161A1.pdf>brings
the "No Lane", filed with the "have nots", into focus.

"At the low end of throughput, 4 Mbps and 10 Mbps, the majority of
Americans have a choice of only two providers. That is what economists call
a "duopoly", a market place that is typically characterized by less than
vibrant competition."

"At 25 Mbps, there is simply no competitive choice for most Americans. Stop
and let that sink in...Three-quarters of American homes have no competitive
choice for the essential infrastructure for 21st century economics and
democracy. Included in that is almost 20 percent who have no service at
all!" "Things only get worse as you move to 50 Mbps where 82 percent of
consumers lack a choice."

Ironically, (as we mentioned in our previous article
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5839394.html>),
America's customers have been charged about $400 billion dollars to have
the entire US upgraded to fiber optic services by 2010, or there abouts,
with speeds of at least 45 Mbps in both directions -- and that was the
speed of broadband in 1992; by 2014, we should have been a 'gigabit nation'.

Wheeler, unfortunately, appears to be in denial about the other pressing
issues -- And it is going to get worse.

*The "No Lane": Shutting off the Copper -- and Force-Migrating to Wireless.*

At an investor meeting, a CITI Investment Research
<http://seekingalpha.com/article/2162303-verizon-communications-management-discusses-q1-2014-results-earnings-call-transcript>
analyst asked Fran Shammo, Verizon's CFO, about "the homes where you don't
have FiOS. I think it's... maybe roughly 8 million homes...".

Fran Shammo responded
<http://seekingalpha.com/article/2162303-verizon-communications-management-discusses-q1-2014-results-earnings-call-transcript>:
'VoiceLink' and 'harvesting' are the plan.

"Outside of the FiOS footprint obviously, really we are taking two measures
there. One is the Wireless portfolio and replacing some of that that old
voice legacy copper voice with our LTE voice product that Wireless has been
selling across the nation for almost two years now called Home Phone
Connect. Within Wireline, they have a very similar product called VoiceLink
which in essence is the same thing.

"So we will try to replace that copper legacy with those technologies. But
look, I mean, outside, this is kind of where you say it's you have to
nurture it and harvest what you have and we know that we are not going to
be able to compete with speed in that environment and we will continue to
do the best we can."

Harvesting customers is essentially getting as much profits out of a
customer as possible by raising rates until the customer screams uncle and
leaves, or stays but is being gouged. But the primary goal is to shut off
the copper, so make as much as possible until then. Meanwhile, VoiceLink caused
a revolt on Fire Island
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/fire-island-erupts-over-v_b_3531584.html>,
New York. After the Sandy Storm, Verizon's plan was to not fix the copper
utility networks in various parts of New York and New Jersey and force
customers onto a 2G-styled wireless service called VoiceLink. Fire Island
residents attacked this plan and in 2014 they were wired with fiber optics;
Mantoloking New Jersey wasn't as fortunate or vocal and is still forced
onto VoiceLink.

Unfortunately, AT&T has an identical plan, but they call it the "IP
Transition". This chart, supplied by AT&T to the FCC, is the current and
after picture about its plans for the Carbon Hill Alabama Internet Protocol
(IP) transition trials, which is supposed to migrate customers from the
current networks to Internet-based networks.

[image: 2014-09-23-attcarbonhill.png]
<http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-09-23-attcarbonhill.png>

In this rather jaw-dropping chart we see that AT&T will shut off 60% of
working wired services to be replaced with their own wireless service,
while 4% can't get anything upgraded so far. And their wireless product
includes a VoiceLink-like service. (I note that as of the filing, VoiceLink
couldn't do data applications or Internet service.)

How exactly does shutting off the working phone lines (and not upgrading
the customers), or worse, replacing the line with an inferior and expensive
wireless service constitute a "transition" to IP protocols exactly?

*Net Neutrality's Broadband Utility Push and the Disconnect. *

To read the Rest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/fast-lane-slow-lane--no-l_b_5865996.html

 Bruce Kushnick, Executive Director
New Networks Institute

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