Ten Worst Telco Moments of 2007

A few years ago, President Bush pledged that every corner of America
would have high-speed Internet by 2007. Well, the year is drawing to
a close, and millions of Americans still do not have access. The
United States has dropped from fourth to 15th in the world in
broadband penetration in the past five years — a result of a telco
stranglehold on both broadband markets and broadband policy that
puts their profits before innovation and the public good.

But that's not all. Even when Americans can get online, an open and
neutral Internet is not guaranteed. In the past year, phone and
cable companies have been throttling the free flow of information on
the Internet and cell phones — giving us a harrowing glimpse of a
world without Net Neutrality.

A review of the 10 Worst Telco Moments of 2007 (in no particular
order):

1. White House Declares `Mission Accomplished' for the Internet

"We have the most effective multiplatform broadband in the world,"
the Bush administration's top technologist, John Kneuer, told
skeptical Web experts and the media in June, despite several
international surveys that place the United States far behind
countries in Asia and Europe.

Kneuer says the real problem is not bad policy, but faulty data in
the surveys. While the Bush White House seemed over eager to declare
broadband success, America's failing report card told a story of a
larger systems breakdown. "Previous generations put a toaster in
every home and a car in every driveway as signs of economic
progress," Sen. John Kerry wrote in September. "To stay competitive,
we should strive to do the same with nationwide broadband."

Let's hope our next president understands that ubiquitous broadband
access needs to be more than a mirage.

2. Telcos Spy on Millions of Americans

For several years now, the nation's largest telecommunications
companies have been spying on their own customers without a warrant.
In the process, they delivered to the federal government the private
records of millions of Americans. Their excuse — national security
in the face of a known terrorist threat — holds little weight when
one considers that they've been spying on us with the NSA well in
advance of the September 11 attacks.

Now, they are pushing a bill — "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act" — that would grant complicit phone companies retroactive
amnesty from prosecution for violations of our civil liberties.
While a few, brave senators have stood in the way of the bill and
refused to let the telcos off the hook, the legislation still stands
a good chance of getting through.

3. Comcast is Busted for Blocking BitTorrent

In October, an Associated Press investigation revealed that Comcast -
technically a cableco - was secretly blocking peer-to-peer file
sharing programs like BitTorrent and Gnutella. Comcast's blocking is
a glaring violation of Net Neutrality.

BitTorrent is rapidly emerging as one of the most successful online
platforms for the sharing of large files. Comcast has a natural
incentive to keep customers watching movies and television shows
through their system, not the Internet.. Despite the evidence,
Comcast's David Cohen told Ars Technica that Comcast does not block
access to file sharing applications and that their practice is
just "content shaping." In response, SavetheInternet.com members
filed a petition urging the FCC to stop Comcast from blocking
Internet traffic and fine them for their violations.

And what can you do if you find out that you've been blocked by
Comcast? Switch to AT&T or Verizon and suffer with slow DSL speeds
and their own draconian terms of service. Free Press has sifted
through the agreements of several Internet and cell phone providers
and found similar language that reserves their right to cut off
users on a whim.

4. AT&T and Verizon Censor Free Speech

In September, Verizon Wireless blocked NARAL Pro-Choice America's
efforts to send mobile text messages to its members. After a New
York Times expose, the phone company reversed its policy, claiming
it was a glitch.

A month earlier, during the live Lollapalooza webcast of a Pearl Jam
concert, AT&T muted lead singer Eddie Vedder just as he launched
into a lyric criticizing President Bush. AT&T launched its own
bungled PR response after a flurry of criticism. But both companies
refused to change internal policies which allowed them to censor in
the future.

Their apologies aren't cutting it anymore. Censorship by AT&T and
Verizon is further proof that these corporate giants simply cannot
be left at the controls of Internet content. These same providers
handed customer phone records over to the NSA without a subpoena and
are now strong-arming Congress for retroactive immunity (see No. 2).
And they want us to trust them with the Internet?

5. Caught Red-Handed, Telcos Change Their Tune

For some time, phone and cable companies and their shills and
lobbyists had been spinning Net Neutrality as a "solution in search
of a problem." But 2007 brought us a series of violations of
Internet freedom which brought the "problem" into vivid relief for
millions.

Undaunted, the shills quickly changed their tune, admitting that
indeed some mistakes were made, but the telcos were merely
implementing "reasonable network management" (aka content
discrimination) to bring us the Internet that we all love and
cherish. The moral of this story: Follow what the telcos do, not
just what they say.

6. Media Insiders Suffer Telco-Vision

Don't always believe the purveyors of conventional wisdom in
Washington media. Some of these pundits are so steeped in their
own "knowledge" that they get stuck spinning in place when faced
with evidence to the contrary. This was the case for a chosen few
who in 2007 hunkered down behind their laptops to write commentaries
to convince the world that Net Neutrality was dead and gone. The
issue is a "fading memory," one crowed. It "barely raises a yawn"
said another.

Their view of the world, however, rarely extends beyond the Potomac,
where the Net Neutrality issue was leading the news and being
vigorously debated along the campaign trail. Indeed, Net Neutrality
emerged as the No. 1 issue that thousands of visitors to
TechPresident selected to be answered by all the presidential
candidates. So the next time an insider tells you that Net
Neutrality is dead, I advise you to check his pulse instead. Then
point out the more than 1.5 million Americans who are taking action
to protect the free and open Internet.

7. The iPhone Gets Shackled

The introduction of the iPhone over the summer highlighted both the
promise and the problems of America's wireless marketplace. On the
one hand, it demonstrated the promises of a truly mobile Internet.
On the other hand, the iPhone raised serious questions about the
fact that most every mobile phone consumer is locked into a long-
term contracts, using a phone that has been "crippled" by carriers,
with significant penalties for switching to a new provider.

The iPhone was shackled to AT&T. The reason? We have allowed
carriers to exert almost complete gatekeeper control over all
devices, services and content in the wireless sector — a move that
has left U.S. innovation generations behind other nations. Reviewing
the state of the wireless market in America, New York Times blogger
David Pogue called American carriers "calcified, conservative and
way behind their European and Asian counterparts." Despite recent
efforts to open devices, the lockdown of cell phones remains the
dominant characteristic of most every user agreement in the country.

8. Bush's Justice Dept. Files Against Net Neutrality

In September, departing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales filed a
brief with the Federal Communications Commission, urging the agency
to oppose Net Neutrality. The DOJ stated that broadband companies
like AT&T should be able to erect toll booths and filter traffic —
upending the even playing field that has made the Web an unrivaled
engine of democratic discourse and new ideas.

The DOJ move once again proved the point: Powerful corporate and
government gatekeepers are working together to dismantle Internet
freedoms and impose their will upon the Web. By moving against Net
Neutrality, Gonzales was merely pulling last-minute favors for
friends in high places. Soon thereafter, Free Press submitted a FOIA
request to shed light on the DOJ's recent hit job against Net
Neutrality and uncover whether industry lobbyists or White House
politics had a hand in this unusual action. We're still waiting for
a response.

9. FCC's Rosy Broadband Report Wilts Under Scrutiny

In February, the FCC released its biannual report on the U.S.
broadband market. On the surface, the numbers sounded good. High-
speed Internet lines increased by 26 percent during the first half
of 2006, and broadband was reportedly available in 99 percent of all
U.S. ZIP codes. But the broadband reality is much darker. According
to Free Press Research Director Derek Turner, the FCC used
an "absurd standard" to measure broadband — 200 kilobits per
second. "That was barely fast enough to surf in 1999, but is far
below what's needed to enjoy streaming video, VoIP, flash animation
or other common Internet applications."

Indeed, speeds are much slower than what's available in the rest of
the world. Half of all U.S. broadband connections are slower than
2.5 megabits per second — yet in countries like Japan and South
Korea, they're rolling out 100 megabit services. And there's no real
competition. 98 percent of high-speed residential lines in America
are provided by incumbent cable or telecom companies. Using ZIP
codes alone vastly overstates the availability and competition for
broadband services. While the FCC's data has been widely debunked,
the telco lobby crowed that the FCC had proven beyond a doubt that
the American broadband marketplace was a haven of free-market
competition — which leads us to our final "worst moment."

10. More Astroturf Sprouts Up, Speads Lies

Washington policymaking has spawned a cottage industry of phony
front groups put in place by phone and cable companies eager to
spread misinformation about anything that threatens their control
over the network. Nowhere is this more evident than in their
campaign to defeat open Internet initiatives.

Throughout the year, companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast have
funneled millions of dollars toward "Astroturf" front groups such as
the disingenuously named NetCompetition.org, Hands Off the Internet
and The Future Faster. For example, Hands Off the Internet — which
sounds like a citizens group to protect the Internet from
gatekeepers — is actually a telco-backed lobbying group that spends
hundreds of thousands of dollars on video PSAs and "grassrootsy" Web
campaigns aimed at eliminating efforts to restore Net Neutrality
protections and spread open access.

True to form, these front groups spent much of 2007 cranking out
phony PR, mouthing telco taking points and casting doubt against any
effort to ensure that the Internet is open, neutral and free of
interference by gatekeepers. And these groups aren't going away
soon. Expect to see them on our worst moments list at the end of
2008.


http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/12/17/five-worse-telco-
moments-of-2007/