IssueRaiser
All solutions

$300 Billion Broadband Scandal (2009) [pdf]

In the previous thread there was a discussion to give the details of how the phone companies were able to charge customers excess profits and get tax perks that were supposed to be used to upgrade the networks. This book -- link attached --- has a description of how we calculated the numbers -- though it was written in 2004 - the 20th anniversary of the break up of AT&T.<p>We have a new book coming out where we update most of the stats, but essentially, the phone companies were able to claim -- en mass --that they were going to replace the copper wires with fiber starting in 1991, and from 1993-to about 2005 they did nothing (with some exceptions) but they were able to get state laws changed to do funding of the upgrades. No state ever went back and examined the commitment and got refunds—so all rate increases are based on the original ‘commitments’—and changes in the law.<p

Why it failed

In the previous thread there was a discussion to give the details of how the phone companies were able to charge customers excess profits and get tax perks that were supposed to be used to upgrade the networks. This book -- link attached --- has a description of how we calculated

Kind
startup
Status
Shut down
Inventor
kushnick
Ended
2014
Source
hackernews
View original source