Telecoms defraud taxpayers to tune of $200 billion

[LiberalPartisan]

I just found this site today and it will make you really peeved at the TelCos. It details how they used government incentives to pay for the rash of mergers and buyouts rather than perform the work those incentives were designed to promote - and for which these samw telcos lobbied - that being the upgrading of the wiring infrastructure nationwide.

Suffice it to say it will make you sick. It makes me almost want to give up.

Introduction and Summary

You're owed money. We estimate that you are owed over $2000.00 per household for a fiber optic broadband network service you have yet to receive and for other overcharging from your local Bell phone company — SBC, Verizon, BellSouth and US West. It is impossible to tell the exact amount in your state without audits.

This is the true tale of one of the largest scandals in US history.

NOTE: See "Who are the Bell Companies?" for more details about these companies and information regarding AT&T and MCI.

We will attempt to show how America entrusted the phone companies with our fiber optic Digital Future and we were taken to the cleaners. It not only cost you and everyone you know a significant sum of money, but it has also harmed our entire economy. It is the reason America is not first in broadband in the world but 12th or 16th, depending on which international agency’s data you believe.

We estimate that the failed fiber optic deployments have cost America over $206 billion in higher phone rates, tax breaks and other financial perks to the phone companies, and it has cost the American economy an estimated $500 billion annually in loss of new growth — so far a total of about $5 trillion.

It is a tale of deceit, fraudulent data and gaming the regulatory system using fake consumer groups, biased research firms and campaign-financed politicians to control everything from the FCC, to Congress, to the state legislatures and commissions to vote for phone-company-financed laws that are not in the public interest.

And it is time to take actions now, because it will get worse before it gets better. This expose is not simply some tale of history that you may not know about. This tale impacts the next decade of telecommunications and broadband, not to mention the entire economy. It impacts every aspect of the digital spectrum, from broadband, to peer-to-peer file sharing, to VOIP or Internet services, to municipalities rewiring their cities with Wi-fi services, to the actual costs of service and the choices you will have in the future.

More here: http://www.newnetworks.com/BroadbandScandalIntro.htm

[dkofos]

1. Verizon laid fiber last year in my neighborhood.

I don't use it though.