Superfast Broadband Development Still Going Slow: [28th Jul 2011]

It has been announced this week by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that rural telecommunications companies are to receive almost $192 million in loans to develop broadband projects for rural areas in eight states. The loans are coming from The Department of Agriculture's Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program and are aimed and increasing the miles of cable in rural America. Vilsack has commented that adequate broadband still does not exist in some parts of the country and that providing broadband will improve jobs, education and health care. The projects announced so far include $70 million to the 3 Rivers Telephone Cooperative and $22.5 million tot he Molalla Telephone Company. Both companies are looking to extend cable and fiber services.


A proposed law which would require new fiber conduits to be laid next to roads whenever they are built or dug up has been delayed once again. The original proposal was first delivered to the Department of Transportation two years ago and since then they have been in discussions with the FCC to determine whether there is a need for this type of legislation. FCC boss Julius Genochowski has expressed his support, however the Government Accountability Office is questioning the cost-benefit of this policy of digging once.


The merger between AT&T and T-mobile has been on the agenda for the FCC once again. They have met with AT&T bosses to discuss the deal and have been assured that the deal would result in lower prices for consumers after they have been quality adjusted. The figures for this resulted from a study by the University of Chicago which found that the argument from competitors that prices will rise fails to take into account the the downward pressure from economies of scale and higher quality service. The report which was made to the FCC was in response to a similar one made by opponents to the deal which questioned the suitability of the merger. AT&T were required by law to submit new justification to the FCC after new evidence for the deal was presented earlier this month.


A small group of 11 AT&T customers have been working to block the company's acquisition of T-Mobile. They say that the law allows private individuals to sue in cases of anti-trust even though consumers are usually barred from pursuing class action suits. AT&T have used their terms and conditions to prevent class actions suits being taken against them in the past. The law company involved has set up a website called fightthemerger.com to encourage other participants in the suit.


Verizon have been slammed this week after they turned the service to a customer off after they complained that their $30 "price for life" deal had received a price hike. While Verizon had said they would fix the problem of no service, they failed to do so. Eventually the customer agreed to go to a new higher priced tariff because she needed the Internet. Verizon had informed her that the price for life deal was no longer available. The customer's service was eventually turned back on and it is unclear if her price for life deal has lived up to its name.


A study by Ongo has discovered that more than half of all Internet users in the US go online daily for their news at least once or twice each day. 56% of those questioned stated that they visit once or twice, while 24% visit four different sites each day. It was also found that men are more likely than women to visit multiple sites. The main topic of interest was national news at 77% followed by world news at 75%, local news at 73% and health at 50%. 37% were found to spend between 15 and 30 minutes each day reading the news and 21% spent 15 minutes or less.