VERIZON VILLAINY | hang on to your jaw! | Ctr. for American Progress [View All]

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from the ALWAYS excellent daily e-brief! (sign up here: www.americanprogress.org sorry I couldn't capture the links that were in the email. but, they're all on the site.)


CORPORATE POWER
Verizon's Villainy

In an attempt to bridge the digital divide and enhance their economic prospects, cities across the nation, including Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis and Philadelphia, are planning to deploy universal low-cost wireless Internet access. Meanwhile, moneyed telecommunications corporations and their army of lobbyists are doing everything in their power to ensure it doesn't happen. In Pennsylvania, for example, the legislature passed a bill with a deeply buried provision – inserted after intensive lobbying by Verizon Communications – which would make it illegal for any city or other "political subdivision" in the state to provide low-cost Internet access to its citizens unless a corporation like Verizon gave them permission. Gov. Ed Rendell has until midnight tonight to sign or veto the legislation. Email Gov. Rendell and tell him he should stand up to corporate lobbyists and veto the bill.

VERIZON'S OFFENSIVE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFENSIVE: Eager to squelch what is quickly becoming a public relations disaster, Verizon said yesterday that it is considering allowing Philadelphia to deploy its wireless network even if the bill is signed into law. This is a transparent effort to tamp down the controversy while still enabling the company to "handcuff other cities and towns in Pennsylvania." For example, a Verizon representative refused to say whether the company would allow the town of Kutztown, PA to go ahead with plans to offer broadband Internet access over wires. More broadly, the citizens of Pennsylvania – not multinational corporations – should be in charge of their government.

THE $3 BILLION CORPORATE GIVEAWAY: The language restricting cities from providing low-cost Internet access was a just a small provision in "a 30-page bill drafted by industry lobbyists." While restricting competition, the bill provides massive giveaways for telecommunication companies to roll out broadband networks. These provisions are worth as much as $3 billion to Verizon alone.

THE BROAD EFFORT TO KILL LOW-COST INTERNET ACCESS: The movement to restrict low-cost broadband Internet access are not limited to Verizon's efforts in Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, BellSouth and Qwest Communications pushed for "severe restrictions on municipal broadband service in Louisiana and Utah." (For more on these corporations' cynical efforts to limit low-cost wireless internet access, check out freepress.net.)

CORPORATE BROADBAND ACCESS LEAVES MIDDLE CLASS BEHIND: Broadband Internet access is "destined to become this century's basic infrastructure – what highways, water systems and power grids were to the last century's development." But corporate control of broadband development has excluded most of the middle class. Among those living in households earning $150,000 and above, nearly 60 percent have broadband Internet access. But among those living in households earning between $25,000 and $34,999, just 13.4 percent have broadband access. Barbara Grant, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, said the city's efforts were intended "to bridge the digital divide for residents who wouldn't have access to the Internet, particularly school children."

MUNICIPAL INTERNET ACCESS IS COST EFFECTIVE: In Philadelphia, planners estimate that offering city-wide wireless Internet access will cost taxpayers $10 million to set up and $1.5 million a year to operate. Commercial broadband access provided by companies like Verizon typically costs from $35 to $60 a month. That means if Verizon were to provide broadband access to all 590,000 Philly households, it would charge at least $247 million a year.