FCC Tries to Bury Report Showing The Clear Evidence of This Fraud

By Karl Bode Dec 7, 2018 | Original Techdirt article here.

From the hiding-it-won't-make-it-go-away department . . .

So every year like clockwork since 2011 the FCC has released a report naming and shaming ISPs that fail to deliver advertised broadband speeds. The Measuring American Broadband program, which the FCC runs in conjunction with UK firm SamKnows, uses custom-firmware embedded routers in subscriber homes to collect data on real-world speeds (an improvement from years past when the FCC would just take ISPs' at their word).

In the years since, the program has been an effective way to name and shame ISPs that fail to deliver speeds promised to consumers. For example, in the first report, the FCC announced that some ISPs, like New York's Cablevision, had delivered just 50% of advertised speeds during peak hours. By the next report Cablevision had moved to fix its under-provisioning issues, and the FCC found that the company was now offering more bandwidth than advertised at peak hours. In the absence of more competition, simply using real data was a useful way to motivate apathetic regional monopolies to try a little harder.

Of course last year that all changed under Ajit Pai, when the FCC boss refused to release the report at all. After being pressured by telecom beat reporters to explain why, the FCC this week finally released some of the data . . . buried in the appendix of a much larger report (pdf) few will actually read.

Ajit Pai’s attempt to bury belated data in a study appendix nobody will read is just another example of Pai’s blind fealty to the industries he is supposed to be holding accountable.

The data showcase how many broadband providers — mostly telcos selling aging, slow and pricey DSL — routinely fail to deliver speeds consumers are paying for:

Continue reading “Broadband Users Still Not Getting The Speeds They Pay For”

By Teresa Mathew, Dec 6, 2018 | Original Point Reyes Light article here.

For years, when Eric Blantz tried to work out of his home in Nicasio, his Skype calls with clients in Africa would routinely drop. “It was because I had no service, not them,” said Mr. Blantz, who at the time worked for a company that delivers computing and broadband assistance to South Asia and Africa. “I’ve seen communities in the developing world with vastly better connectivity that we had here.”

Now, 80 customers — including a handful of low-income residents — in Nicasio have broadband service. The county expects that number to double by early spring.

In 2015, Nicasio landowners began to work with Marin County to find a carrier that could obtain grant funding through the California Public Utilities Commission to install broadband connections for residents. The commission recommended Inyo Networks, a telecommunications company headquartered in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. In 2016, Inyo was granted roughly $1.5 million: 60 percent of the total cost of the project. As a requirement of the grant, Nicasio landowners had to raise the other 40 percent.

Continue reading “Nicasio Fiber Optic Network Goes Live”

Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) 5G Safety Statement, December 3, 2018

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For Immediate Release

December 3, 2018

BLUMENTHAL, ESHOO RAISE SAFETY CONCERNS TO FCC COMMISSIONER REGARDING 5G TECHNOLOGIES

[WASHINGTON, DC]—Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representative Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr seeking answers regarding potential health risks posed by new 5G wireless technology.

On November 1, 2018, the National Toxicology Program released the final results of the longest and most expensive study to date on cellphones and cancer. Those studies found “some evidence” of a link to cancer, at least in male rats. However, the study only focused on the risks associated with 2G and 3G cell phones. There has been even more limited research with respect to the health ramifications of 5G technology.

Since 5G uses higher frequency waves that don’t travel as far, this new wireless technology will rely on the deployment of thousands of “small cell” antennas closer to the ground and near homes and school. At a recent hearing in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Commissioner Carr dismissed Mayor Paul TenHaken’s awareness about the health ramifications of these cell towers.

Blumenthal and Eshoo write in the letter to Commissioner Carr.

“To ensure we communicate accurate information to our constituents—many of whom have concerns similar to Mayor TenHaken’s—we respectfully request you provide to our offices the 5G safety determination from FCC and relevant health agencies that you referred to during the field hearing. Please also include current citations for the studies informing that safety determination. Like Mayor TenHaken, we recognize that the literature on 5G technology may be limited ‘because it’s so new,’ and are interested in acquainting ourselves with the latest studies evaluating the health effects of high-band frequencies and modulations that would be used in 5G networks,”

Continue reading “Blumenthal/Eshoo Press Release Dec. 3, 2018”

By Ana Radelat, Dec 3, 2018 | Original article here and here.

Washington – U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is leading a campaign to determine whether new 5G wireless technology is safe and is asking the federal government for proof the cutting edge radio-frequency will not harm Americans or cause them to get cancer.

On Monday, Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., wrote to Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr seeking information on how his agency has determined 5G technology is safe.

“We need to know whether the radio frequencies can cause cancer,” Blumenthal said at a press conference in Hartford on Monday.

The FCC did not have an immediate response to the letter.

Blumenthal said 5G technology “is a vast improvement” over the 2G and 3G radio waves that allow wireless devices like cell phones and computers to operate. “But there is also a peril of health hazards associated with radio-frequency that is higher and requires more transmitters and antennas,” he said.

The issue of whether 5G technology is safe was raised by Paul TenHaken, the mayor of Sioux Falls, S.D., at a Commerce Committee field hearing last month.
At that hearing, TenHaken asked Carr for “clear direction” and studies that show 5G towers, which would be placed near schools, libraries and homes, would not pose a risk to his constituents.

Continue reading “Sen. Blumenthal Wants FCC to Prove 5G Wireless Technology Will Not Harm Americans”

By Susan Crawford Dec 4, 2018 | Original Wired article here.

When you make a phone call, I'm willing to bet you don't think of the phone line as having free speech rights of its own. That phone line has one job: getting the sound of your voice to the place you want it to go. It isn't planning to deliver a speech or getting ready to go on Broadway. Although life may be boring for the phone line as a result, it is actually getting a great deal: The phone line can't get blamed for whatever lousy thing you say during your call.

But if the cable industry gets its way, internet access — today's basic utility — will be treated just like the press for First Amendment purposes, giving it a free pass in perpetuity from any governmental oversight. In the US, the First Amendment gives the press the right to be free from governmental interference when it publishes or speaks. Any laws or regulations restricting that speech are likely to be subject to rigorous scrutiny by courts and found unconstitutional.

It seems counterintuitive that a phone line could be a speaker. But the cable industry very much wants to ensure that the act of transmitting speech from Point A to Point B is protected by the First Amendment, so that making a cable connection carry any speech it isn’t interested in carrying amounts to unconstitutional “forced speech.”

Continue reading “The Sneaky Fight to Give Cable Lines Free Speech Rights”

The following is the original text with a few relevant bolded emphases, links and blockquotes added; read the original letter here, or the text, below. The Business Wire press release is here.

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Congress of the United States

Washington, DC 20510

December 3, 2018

The Honorable Brendan Carr
Commissioner
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street. SW
Washington, DC 20554

Dear Commissioner Carr:

We write with interest regarding your recent remarks on the safety of 5G technologies during a Senate Commerce Committee field hearing in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

During this hearing, the Mayor of Sioux Falls, the Honorable Paul TenHaken, asked about the health ramifications of 5G and small cell deployment.

Mayor Paul Tenhaken: I feel we also need to address . . . what health impacts micro millimeter waves have because it’s so new. I’m going to get asked this 20 times yet this evening about the health ramifications of 5G . . . I’m hearing this more and more.

His request as the leader of his municipality, was for clear direction, talking points, studies that have been done that show that there is no harm to our constituents and to the taxpayers on putting these small cells on towers close to libraries, close to schools, close to their homes.

Continue reading “Sen. Blumenthal and Rep. Eshoo 5G Safety Letter to the FCC”

Legislative Office Building, Hartford, CT, Room 1B, 11:00 AM.

Comments by: B. Blake Levitt,
Communications Director, The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council, Invited Guest by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal

Re: U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal’s Letter to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr About 5G Health Hazards

Senator Blumenthal:

“The stark, simple fact is, the health hazards are unknown and unstudied. And that is a sign of neglect and disregard on the part of the Federal Communications Commission that is unacceptable. We need to know whether 4G and 5G technology can cause neurological problems, DNA damage, cancer and other diseases."

To my press colleagues — thank you for a few moments of your time to address a most significant issue.

I’m Blake Levitt, a medical and science journalist, author, and communications director for The Berkshire – Litchfield Environmental Council — a tri-state nonprofit housed in the Northwest Hills. BLEC has focused on the how infrastructure affects biology, which most environmental organizations do not. We have been ardent fans of Senator Blumenthal for decades as, in our opinion, he is always on the right side for the environment. And he is proving that again today with his letter to the FCC, seeking clarification on the safety of the next generation of technology called 5G.

Thank you Senator Blumenthal for taking on this most significant and complex issue – you go where angels fear to tread!

The importance of Senator Blumenthal’s letter could not be more timely, or ask more pertinent questions. The FCC has been described by Harvard University ’s Center for Ethics writer, Norm Alster, as “the most captured agency in DC,” acting more as an industry cheerleader than a regulator. This is especially true today with 5G where there could be serious safety harms and misleading information coming from FCC.¹ Senator Blumenthal’s questions to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr pull back the curtain on that.

Continue reading “Dec 3 Press Conference re: Sen Blumenthal Letter to the FCC”

Congress has a week to pass a spending bill to keep the lights on . . .

By Michael Collins, Nov. 28, 2018 | Original USA TODAY article here.

WASHINGTON – The federal government is moving closer to its third government shutdown since President Donald Trump took office. And Trump says he’d “totally be willing” to let it happen.

The government will run out of money at midnight Dec. 7 unless Congress passes a spending bill to keep the lights on. If lawmakers fail to act, some government agencies will no longer have the necessary funding to keep operating and will be forced to close their doors.

Congress already has approved five bills providing funding for the areas of defense, energy and water, labor, health and human services, the legislative branch and veterans affairs. Trump has signed those into law.

But seven other spending bills are still awaiting congressional action. The bills that need approval would fund the departments of . . .

• Agriculture
• Commerce
• Justice
• Homeland Security
• Interior
• State
• Transportation
• Housing and Urban Development

. . . as well as several smaller agencies.

Continue reading “Another Government Shutdown?”

Wireless connections that are 20 times faster? What could be disappointing about that? Don't hold your breath.

Adapted from an opinion piece by Mike Elgan, Sept 29, 2018 | Original ComputerWorld editorial here.

Nov 25, 2018: Huge Health Crisis Coming From Deployment of 4G and 5G Densified Antennas

 

You’ve heard the claims: 5G will enable safe self-driving cars, streaming virtual reality, long-distance surgery, 3D holographic video calls, and the four-hour workweek.

Here is some more you may have read:

• 5G will usher in the real-time enterprise (RTE) that we’re told, will transform business completely.

• The companies building 5G technology say real-world 5G speeds will be 10 to 20 times faster than 4G — realistically between 100 and 200 Mbit/sec.

• More importantly, 5G should have much lower latency — from around 20 milliseconds for today’s networks to about 1 millisecond with 5G — so everything in the cloud will be more responsive and video calls will be a lot better.

• Best of all, the new 5G phones are coming out next year, so all these benefits are imminent.

You might say Hooray! We’re months away from a 5G-enabled Age of Aquarius!

Well, I’m sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but 5G isn’t going to be all that great anytime soon. Before I tell you why, first let’s talk about how, when and where 5G will emerge, starting with the phones.

Continue reading “Why 5G Will Disappoint Everyone”

. . . the 4G and 5G Wireless Fairy Tale Told by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr

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Adapted from an article by bruce kushnick Nov 26, 2018 | Original Medium article here.

The FCC’s Extreme-Density Indianapolis 4G and 5G Fairy Tale

The picture above is an old map of “The Mile Square” in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is the center of town and was designed in 1821 to mimic the street plan for Washington DC. We added the red ‘diamonds’ to show where 4G and 5G small cells might be placed.

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To all of the 2nd graders (and others) reading this . . . I apologize for the FCC’s data and analysis about extreme-density 4G and 5G wireless installations in neighborhoods. Unlike what they teach you in school, these days, government agencies, like the FCC (which has oversight over your family’s wireless, cable, online and phone services) are filled with lawyers, like FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, or Chairman Ajit Pai, who formerly worked for large the Telecoms, like AT&T and Verizon.

That’s why they just make stuff up or they just plagiarize other group’s work specifically written to help these former employers. No one really cares about this extreme-density 4G and 5G stuff except these companies and those they have hyped — because this is just about making more money from the unsuspecting public. This is very much like the bullies at school that no one wants to confront; that’s why get away with it.

5G Wireless is trying to be a tech/Telecom Santa Claus, promising gifts-a-plenty. On September 4th 2018, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr made an announcement in the Senate Statehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, located in this very square mile, and then Carr took the lead and had the FCC pass new regulations, (which are now being challenged in court), to do execute this plan.

What’s the plan? The FCC and the Telecoms claim that no one cares about using the wires anymore — even in their homes or offices or even for broadband Internet.

Continue reading “Even Indianapolis 2nd Graders Would Not Believe”