Bruce Kushnick continues to do an excellent job on why we should distrust the Bells. AT&T and Verizon have never made a promise that they failed to break.
But the argument of pro-Bell groups like the so-called Progress & Freedom Foundation and sock puppets like Scott Cleland remains, "But they haven't violated net neutrality yet, why would they?
Well actually, they do. They have. And they make a ton of money out of it.
The dirty secret of modern telecomm is that all the money is in wireless. Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless provider. Verizon advertising claims only "the network" can guarantee good wireless service. (That is a lie.) Verizon claims it offers Internet service off its phones.
Does it? Not on your tintype.
Even The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg refers to the Verizon and Cingular networks as "Soviet Ministries." They
decide what online services users will be able to access, and at what
price. They also take money from both sides of every information
transaction.
When challenged about this, they lie. That's right, they lie. They claim that if someone was unhappy with a third party they would complain to Verizon. As though people complain to their ISPs about every bad site visit they have. As though the mobile companies were paragons of customer service. They are not.
This reminds me. A reader in Pakistan (yes Pakistan) wrote recently to ask why I haven't given much coverage lately to the FCC's spectrum auctions, where it seems that frequency hoarders like Verizon have managed to push out the biggest bids.
It's true. These auctions were sold to us as a way to increase competition in wireless services, and lower prices. They are doing neither. Only unlicensed spectrum can do that. Given all the scandals of our time this one isn't a headline, but a full Bell break-up will sooner-or-later have to include spectrum reform, and the rolling-back of this nonsense.
For now, just remember. Here's how to tell when a Bell or Bell-affiliated company representative is lying. Their lips move.
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