AT&T Wants $100 Million From California Taxpayers For Aging DSL AT&T is asking California taxpayers to give them $100 million so that AT&T can provide several parts of the state with unreliable, slow and expensive DSL service. As Steve Blum’s blog notes, under Assembly Bill 2130 (written by AT&T lobbyists), AT&T would receive $100 million from state taxpayers. In return, AT&T would only need to provide 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload and would have little to no oversight over whether the $100 million is even being used for the DSL service. According to Blum, AB 2130 would:

quote: 1. freeze the current California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure subsidy program, 2. authorise the collection of $100 million more from taxpayers, 3. distribute it according to byzantine rules that all but guarantee that the money would go to AT&T to spend as it pleases, while 4. tightening its monopoly stranglehold on rural residents. Currently, the California Public Utilities Commission says that 1.5 Mbps upload is the minimum acceptable speed in order to receive state subsidies under the California Advanced Services Fund. Therefore, AT&T wants taxpayer money for a service that isn’t even deemed acceptable under current state rules. Currently, the California Public Utilities Commission says that 1.5 Mbps upload is the minimum acceptable speed in order to receive state subsidies under the California Advanced Services Fund. Therefore, AT&T wants taxpayer money for a service that isn’t even deemed acceptable under current state rules. This type of move shouldn’t surprise anyone with knowledge of AT&T’s past. For years, AT&T has taken billions from federal and state governments in order to provide a DSL service that AT&T has no interest in upgrading, instead wanting to fill in coverage gaps with the company's LTE network. In most areas, AT&T is making it abundantly clear that it's giving up on DSL and fixed-line broadband entirely, and were one to do an audit (which will never happen), it's guaranteed they'd find billions in past subsidies that never resulted in tangible improvements. Whether it is pushing the FCC to keep the National Broadband Map from listing prices, fighting Whether it is pushing the FCC to keep the National Broadband Map from listing prices, fighting competition wherever possible, or lobbying hard for little oversight over how AT&T uses federal taxpayer money, both AT&T and Verizon have quite the history of taking taxpayer money and providing little to nothing in return.







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Most recommended from 71 comments



tmcb82

Premium Member

join:2002-04-16

Hilliard, OH 23 recommendations tmcb82 Premium Member Really? [Sarcam] Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't $100 million less than the $48.5 billion that they just paid for DirecTV? [/Sarcam]

I'm fairly sure they can afford this on their own!

keithps

Premium Member

join:2002-06-26

Soddy Daisy, TN 22 recommendations keithps Premium Member Crazy First they sue all the municipal providers because it's not fair for the government to be using its money to compete, then they ask the same government for money to fix their stuff.

tigerpaw509

join:2011-01-19 18 recommendations tigerpaw509 Member Profits And dont forget the $18 Billion a year after year Profits the make. Ozykz

join:2013-03-30

Salford, ON 25.6 1.0

·Bell Aliant Regi..

15 recommendations Ozykz Member "instead wanting to fill in coverage gaps with the company's LTE network" Yes, I get it, but I'd rather have them actually put money into DSL rather than their LTE network. It's interesting to hear ISPs hype up LTE so much over DSL but they can't even begin to provide anywhere near the same standard of service.



Talk to me when you can provide Unlimited data with no throttling, and a connection I can actually rely on for VoIP.

battleop

join:2005-09-28

00000 14 recommendations battleop Member So let me get this straight... They want $100M so that they can charge them to deliver 10/1 DSL? LOL...

TIGERON

join:2008-03-11

Boston, MA 14 recommendations TIGERON Member Karl you forgot to mention.... On top of that AT&T also has a 150 gigabyte usage cap per month on that legacy DSL on an already badly designed website where that "usage meter" is inaccessible 90% of the time.



THIS IS HIGHWAY ROBBERY.

cableties

Premium Member

join:2005-01-27 14 recommendations cableties Premium Member That's just for them to keep the pensions afloat. Ddin't they take a page from Verizon and look for a sucker to sell the copperplant off too?

SpottedCat

join:2004-06-27

Miami, FL 13 recommendations SpottedCat Member How about they DO something for the $100 million? How about...



They can have the $100 million, but only if they upgrade the affected users to fiber connectivity?



Giving them $100 million to do nothing seems.. just plain idiotic.

bockbock

@hcs.net 10 recommendations bockbock Anon Plunder! How much more loot is T going to get this time? kevin_pink

join:2006-10-15

Bronx, NY 1 edit 10 recommendations kevin_pink Member So wait... A company with ~$13B (9% on $146B) in profits needs $100,000,000 from taxpayers why again? Why not just use the 0.77% of their yearly profits to put these places into the 20th century?

cabana

Department of Adjustments

Mod

join:2000-07-07

New York, NY 9 recommendations cabana Mod Private ... when ya wanna be



A company that loves to be public when it suits them ... and private when it suits them.



So tired of "fees" and "tax credits" being levied with no say and used under the guise of ... "but we can't help our customers if we don't get even more money from the community chest". Where do they think the taxes dollars come from ... the revenue fairy? ... noooo ... ATT customer's pocket.



What about those peeps that don't use ATT in that area ... do they get an exemption on their personal taxes? You are not proposing that you use from their tax chest are you?



And while I don't know it ... I would guess ... that ATT probably got a subsidy a break ... "a something" when the original build out happened? And haven't these poor copper babies probably paid through the nose over the years for sub par service as their speed declined. (not to mention what a nice slap in the face for these early adopters)



The answer should be a big fat NO. You want these customers? Then do right by them ... either fix your own damn system ... or give them a new option ... either option should be on the ATT profit dime. It's called ... investing in your own infrastucture !!!!



(unless of course ... you are taking it as a loan ... and you plan on paying it back with obscene interest rate) ... oh wait ... that only works from corporation to customer ...



I personally would like my tax dollars to go for more "dumb stuff" ... like ... oh I don't know ... roads ... bridges ... maybe some water pipes that don't contain lead. Love it ... congratulations ATT ... just when your "you know what's" could not get any bigger... they do. They must be dragging the ground at this point.A company that loves to be public when it suits them ... and private when it suits them.So tired of "fees" and "tax credits" being levied with no say and used under the guise of ... "but we can't help our customers if we don't get even more money from the community chest". Where do they think the taxes dollars come from ... the revenue fairy? ... noooo ... ATT customer's pocket.What about those peeps that don't use ATT in that area ... do they get an exemption on their personal taxes? You are not proposing that you use from their tax chest are you?And while I don't know it ... I would guess ... that ATT probably got a subsidy a break ... "a something" when the original build out happened? And haven't these poor copper babies probably paid through the nose over the years for sub par service as their speed declined. (not to mention what a nice slap in the face for these early adopters)The answer should be a big fat NO. You want these customers? Then do right by them ... either fix your own damn system ... or give them a new option ... either option should be on the ATT profit dime. It's called ... investing in your own infrastucture !!!!(unless of course ... you are taking it as a loan ... and you plan on paying it back with obscene interest rate) ... oh wait ... that only works from corporation to customer ...I personally would like my tax dollars to go for more "dumb stuff" ... like ... oh I don't know ... roads ... bridges ... maybe some water pipes that don't contain lead.

buzz_4_20

join:2003-09-20

Biddeford, ME 7 recommendations buzz_4_20 Member How about We stop spending money on DSL. It had it's day in the sun, now it's time to MOVE FORWARD. etaadmin

join:2002-01-17

united state 4 recommendations etaadmin Member Ask cable what they can do... Also ask the cable companies what they can do with 100 million and then decide who is going to get the 100 meeellion.



I would rather get DOCSIS3.x than old legacy adsl.

dbrower

@oracle.com 4 recommendations dbrower Anon Intercourse the copper AT&T could fully compete with Comcast if they put fiber on the poles they already own. Evidently not as profitable as pay-per-gig wireless, so unworthy of investment.

spewak

R.I.P Dadkins

Premium Member

join:2001-08-07

Elk Grove, CA 3 recommendations spewak Premium Member att or cpuc Take your pick: CPUC is corrupt as it is, so getting into bed with att is almost normal. chgo_man99

join:2010-01-01

San Jose, CA 360.8 10.3

·Comcast XFINITY

3 recommendations chgo_man99 Member Silicon Valley - center of innovation but broadband not so innovative, although for ex, Comcast has faster speeds for all tier levels than in many other parts of the country (Blast 150/10). To my knowledge, Cupertino was supposed to get 1GB connection from ATT but when I try to plug in addresses of nearly all luxury/new apartments or house on att website, I usually end up with only slower VDSL or even no att landline at all. Google fiber has trouble installing and expanding in many towns due to poles owned by AT&T and Comcast.