Search Results: 26 documents found

| Multiple rate and tax increases, in the name of broadband
COMMENTARY | June 08, 2010
Using old data, the FCC proposes multiple revenue-raisers. Bruce Kushnick sees most of the money, as in the past, going to the big telecoms that have already collected huge amounts and have failed to deliver on their promises. He asks whatever happened to the quaint idea of protecting customers’ rights.

| We’re No. 1, says Verizon CEO Seidenberg
COMMENTARY | April 17, 2010
Never mind that Hong Kong’s broadband is 200 times faster in downloading, 1000 times faster in uploading than the average U.S. service, and at lower monthly fees.

Not to be trusted | How the FCC's exciting new broadband plan is a fraud
COMMENTARY | March 16, 2010
Telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick writes that giant telecoms and cable companies -- and the lobbyists, think tanks and astroturf groups they fund -- have so corrupted the debate over broadband that what may look like progress actually amounts to small steps toward antiquated standards that taxpayers have already paid for many times over.

Kiss your wall jack goodbye? | Is basic American telephone service in a death spiral?
ASK THIS | February 03, 2010
Bruce Kushnick questions whether AT&T and Verizon are trying to kill off the “plain old telephone service” that millions of Americans rely on. In a recent FCC filing cited by Kushnick, AT&T stated that landline utilities are from a bygone era, and asked to be relieved of its obligations to service them.

It’s not 1997 any more | Why does the FCC keep using old data?
COMMENTARY | November 19, 2009
There aren’t many ‘small’ or ‘very small’ Internet service providers. But you can’t tell that from data the broadband and Internet regulators use to make decisions that benefit the big telecoms.

U.S. is 15th in broadband. Can it get back to the top? | The new FCC chairman is making all the right promises. Can he fulfill them?
ASK THIS | July 08, 2009
Julius Genachowski, with connections to Obama and prior experience at the FCC, says he will promote universal, affordable, open broadband. To do that and to fulfill other promises, he first will have to take the agency out of the grip of the telecommunications firms it is supposed to regulate. Press coverage here isn’t just desirable, it’s vital.

U.S. is 15th in broadband. Can it get back to the top? | The new FCC chairman is making all the right promises. Can he fulfill them?
ASK THIS | July 08, 2009
Julius Genachowski, with connections to Obama and prior experience at the FCC, says he will promote universal, affordable, open broadband. To do that and to fulfill other promises, he first will have to take the agency out of the grip of the telecommunications firms it is supposed to regulate. Press coverage here isn’t just desirable, it’s vital.

The new administration | What’s the outlook for broadband and Internet?
ASK THIS | February 03, 2009
The congressional stimulus packages could go either way, writes consumer advocate Bruce Kushnick. They could mark a new, promising beginning—or they could be a new boondoggle for AT&T, Verizon and rural phone companies.

| Expect big problems in the switch to digital TV
ASK THIS | December 03, 2008
For some over-the-air viewers in rural areas the switch to DTV in February may result in unforeseen costs and inability to view stations they now watch.

Infrastructure | What now for broadband and the telecoms?
ASK THIS | November 17, 2008
Will Obama and Congress be satisfied to leave the U.S. as 15th among developed nations in broadband use? Will the FCC under Democratic control be less of a tool for large corporations? Questions and proposals from Bruce Kushnick.

| Media consolidation seen as ‘almost unAmerican’
COMMENTARY | June 08, 2008
FCC commissioner Adelstein, others attack mergers and express optimism about change in Washington in 2009.

There's a little history here | The FiOS ads say, 'This is big!' Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't
COMMENTARY | May 09, 2008
Bruce Kushnick scoffs at the new FiOS ads in New York and wants to know where all the billions earmarked for broadband have gone.

Special interests at work | Wisconsin: A case study in how corporations get the legislation they want
COMMENTARY | January 31, 2008
Telecom and broadband expert and activist Bruce Kushnick describes how model corporate bills get introduced and enacted in Wisconsin, to the detriment of the common good. (Second of two articles.)

This is Jeffersonian? | How much of your state’s legislation is being drafted by industry?
ASK THIS | November 30, 2007
The American Legislative Council, or ALEC, lets corporations cultivate legislators and win support for industry-written bills while not technically breaking lobbying rules – and paying no taxes. (First of two articles)

Think tanks and telecoms | ‘Kushnick sees conspiracy where we see collaboration’
COMMENTARY | October 10, 2007
Matt Bennett, executive director of the New Millenium Research Council, requested equal space to respond to Bruce Kushnick’s commentary, “Corporate-funded research designed to influence public policy.” Here is Mr. Bennett’s response.

The think-tank smell test | Corporate-funded research designed to influence public policy
COMMENTARY | October 01, 2007
Reports by well-known think tanks and individuals funded by telecoms are helping quash competition, increase phone rates and set up a corporate-oriented Internet system. Is there any reason to trust these reports? Or to trust experts who testify before regulators without revealing the sources of their funding?

Greasing palms, 21st Century version | Press gives a free pass to citizens groups allied with telecoms
ASK THIS | May 07, 2007
At a New Jersey utilities board hearing on cable franchises, three guys from Verizon – the elephant in the room – go unnoticed by the regulators, and by the press.

Introduction to 'skunkworks' | Verizon, AT&T and the manipulation of public opinion
COMMENTARY | April 04, 2007
Needed: Blacks, Hispanics, disabled, deaf, low-income and the elderly to support the telecoms’ positions on anti-consumer FCC rulings and legislation.

Unreadable phone bills, no oversight | For low-volume users, phone costs have risen sharply
COMMENTARY | January 04, 2007
Despite phone company pledges to reduce charges, millions of people are paying more for long distance calls, sometimes as much as $1 a minute. Meanwhile, the FCC chairman says rates are in a free-fall.

Part of a series | Local phone charges have soared since the break-up of AT&T
ASK THIS | September 18, 2006
One in a series: Activist Bruce Kushnick examines local telephone charges. Is the sum greater than the parts? No, they’re all extremely high, he finds, and basically unregulated.

Taking broadband backwards | Why is Congress considering such anti-consumer telecom bills?
ASK THIS | July 26, 2006
Activist Bruce Kushnick writes that both telecom bills before Congress would be huge giveaways to the very same telecommunications giants that have in the past pocketed massive government subsidies while shafting consumers and knee-capping American competitiveness. But they've taken very good care of members of Congress

Financial windfalls | How do the big telecoms qualify as small businesses?
ASK THIS | June 23, 2006
Bruce Kushnick, in the fourth of a series, says giant firms are gaming the system, using fronts for FCC auctions of the airwave spectrum.

The infrastructure equation | Telecoms, cable and the ‘Net neutrality’ fight
ASK THIS | May 03, 2006
Who paid for, who owns the broadband ‘pipes?’ Customers largely paid for them; phone companies claim ownership. Also: Open vs. closed networks. (Third in a series)

Telecommunications | How the Baby Bells and the government destroyed competition for DSL, long distance and local phone service
ASK THIS | April 13, 2006
Customer advocate Bruce Kushnick, in the second of a series on telecommunications, writes that reporters should be asking why the promised era of competition to lower prices and bring broadband to America never materialized.

First in a series | Where’s that broadband fiber-optic access?
ASK THIS | March 14, 2006
The head of Teletruth, a consumer advocacy group, writes that in spite of huge payments and other financial incentives to the country’s monopolistic telecommunication giants, the United States is 16th in broadband Internet technology and falling. How did things go wrong in your state?

Bruce Kushnick
Bruce Kushnick has been a telecom analyst for 28 years, and is currently the chairman of Teletruth, an independent customer advocacy group focusing on broadband and telecom issues, as well as executive director of New Networks Institute, a market research firm.