News - June 13, 2019

New VIDEO: Time for the FCC to Save the Bridge 2 Broadband from Big Telecom’s “Competition Cut Off”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 13, 2019) – Smaller, local broadband providers are sounding the alarm at the FCC. They are warning against a dangerous lobby effort by AT&T and Verizon that will cut off competition and raise broadband prices.

In a new VIDEO, competitive providers detail why the Bridge 2 Broadband is so critical to fiber deployment and building faster, more affordable networks to homes, small businesses, libraries and schools.

To watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmd9ckEYRFo

Competitive access, guaranteed by law in the bipartisan Telecommunications Act of 1996, provides smaller competitors a means for market entry as they buildout new fiber networks in urban, suburban and rural areas. In many rural communities, a small competitive provider delivers the only means of internet access. But a forbearance petition by USTelecom (AT&T and Verizon’s trade group) is asking the FCC to kill off competition laws and raise prices.

The video explains that burning the bridge to broadband would upend the nation’s deployment goals and put winning the race to a 5G future at risk. INCOMPAS recently noted that USTelecom is using bad data from broken broadband maps as an excuse to cut off competition.

The video also calls attention to AT&T’s $180 billion debt (following its purchases of DirectTV, CNN and HBO) and highlights a recent Wall Street analysis that said AT&T must now “milk” its older, legacy networks to pay off its record level of debt. Last week, an AT&T executive said that with its merger build-out conditions ending, the company’s investment in fiber was “falling off.”

“The truth is Big Telecom companies are too indebted and too tied to old networks of the past to build new networks of the future in urban, suburban and rural markets,” said Chip Pickering, CEO of INCOMPAS. “It is the new fiber companies, led by a new generation of local entrepreneurs that will build the fiber future.”

The FCC’s deadline to act on the USTelecom forbearance petition is August 2nd, 2019. To learn more, please visit Bridge2Broadband.