Cable Lobbying Group Crushes Consumer Choice, again September 22, 2007
I was elated when I heard the EPB (Electric Power Board) In Chattanooga announce their Fiber to the Home initiative. But there was a dark cloud looming overhead from the very moment I heard the news. I knew the powerful cable and telephone lobby groups would never let an alternative to their broadband services see the light of day if they could prevent it. They have attacked every attempt ever made to drag America out of the digital ghetto.
So this morning when I read on the Irresponsible Journalism blog about this article in the Times Free Press titled “Cable TV group files lawsuit against EPB plan” I was not surprised. I was furious, pissed off beyond belief, but not surprised.
The Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association (TCTA) filed suit in Chancery Court of Davidson County Friday. They want us to know “EPB Chattannoga’s FTTH is NOT a Good Idea“. I looked briefly at some of their material and it absolutely reeks of the same spin they feed congress. According to the TCTA’s “facts” “There is plenty of competition..” and “Fiber to the home offers no additional services to Chattanooga“. I tend to think of a 100mb Internet connection as a new service I would like to have! Apparently the TCTA thinks keeping up with the rest of the world is a bad idea. You can read the grounds for the suit from the article but it makes no difference. A legal roadblock was as inevitable as the sunrise.
Many people in the UK have dozens of Internet Service Providers to chose from and hundreds of different service plans as reported in this post on Public Knowledge. If you want to make yourself sick look at the spreadsheet mentioned in that PK piece, and that was in 2004! The more up to date figures are truly soul crushing if you live in the US. In Japan many people have 100mb connections for less than half of what Comcast charges for “Up-to” 1.5mb.
Those cute little turtles on Comcast’s TV commercials don’t represent DSL. They represent the USA. Our giant cable and telephone corporations are a disgrace to the nation. They are incapable of providing the same level of service and low cost enjoyed by the people of 15 or 20 other nations around the world and refuse to allow anyone else to pick up their slack. So screw you, TCTA, for screwing the people of Chattannooga.
Comments
After the 8/17 EPB board vote, TCTA ran color ads on 9/4 and 9/5 in the Chattanoogan blasting EPB’s FTTH initiative. At the public meeting at EPB on 9/5 Ms. Briggs accused Dalton, GA; Bristol, TN; and other utility FTTH businesses as reporting false subscriber counts to “whomever”, whereas Comcast reports accurately to Wall Street…like Adelphia and the Rigas’ did???? She kept comparing EPB to Memphis which as a Chattanoogan I truly resent. To add insult, TCTA filed a frivolous lawsuit against EPB on 9/21 claiming they’re breaking the law! I’m mad as hell at TCTA and Comcast for trying to stall EPB’s entrance into FTTH. Thank God EPB’s board and the City Council know a good thing for our community and are supporting this initiative. More of us need to continue to speak out in favor of EPB.
AYMEN! I will be the first to flip comcast the finger and jump on the fiber bandwagon. My biggest hope: If they REALLY want to kick Comcast in the balls, don’t give us download caps. I would jump ship for that alone even if the download speed wasn’t as fast. I am getting tired of having to worry about my HD movie consumption. I have 4 computers in the houe all used by different people. My wife is from Ukraine and streams TV from a site we pay for. Add to that a Slingbox, Xbox 360, Wii. . . we come close every month to that 250 gig limit.