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​by Ryan Barwick, Sept 4, 2018 Center for Public Integrity article here

Pai’s FCC Wants to Kick Resellers Out of Lifeline

Suffering heat stroke on an un-air-conditioned Tulsa, Oklahoma, transit bus, Sweet Paula Ogans-Recess’ cell phone may very well have saved her life. Losing consciousness as her complexion flushed, she dialed 911. First responders traced her call, found her, and administered aid.

"I would have died . . . If it wasn’t for the phone, I wouldn’t be here," said Ogans-Recess.

It’s why she never leaves home without her phone—a phone Ogans-Recess has because she participates in the Lifeline program, a Reagan-era subsidy initiative.

But now, her participation in the program might be at risk, as she is one of more than 7 million low-income households threatened to be disconnected from their phone service under a government proposal to curtail the federal subsidy program.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, appointed to the post by President Donald Trump, wants to remove a majority of wireless providers that participate in the Lifeline program in an attempt to eliminate "waste, fraud, and abuse." If such a move were made, the "chaos would be magnificent," said David Dorwart, the chairman of the National Lifeline Association (NaLA), a trade organization that represents Lifeline businesses.

Roughly 10.7 million Americans receive text, voice, and data under the program, and 70 percent would have to look for a new service provider under the proposal, according to NaLA, if an affordable option is even available. The program cost about $1.3 billion in 2017, and the funding comes from the Universal Service Fund, which is collected from phone subscribers by service providers.

"They get their doctor calls, and they reach out to schools, and that won’t be available to them at the cost it is today," said Dorwart of Lifeline users. "It’s not only an accessibility issue, it’s an affordability issue."

Continue reading “Millions Could Lose Phone Service Under FCC Overhaul of Lifeline”

By Bruce Kushnick New Networks Institute Sept 3, 2018 | Original Medium article here.

Leecia Eve is currently the Verizon Vice President of State Government Affairs for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, since 2013. Prior to that, she served as the Deputy Secretary of Economic Development for NY and Governor Cuomo’s Chief Economic Development Adviser.

Ms. Eve is running to become the next Attorney General of New York, yet there have been no news reports about Eve’s work at Verizon.

• As one of the people in charge of Verizon NJ, Eve helped to close down/erase the multi-billion dollar requirement to have the state upgraded to fiber optics with a bait-and-switch to substitute wireless at DSL speeds.
• Next, Eve got new deregulation to significantly raise landline telephone rates.
• In New York, Eve most likely was responsible, with the help of Governor Cuomo, for shutting down a multi-billion dollar investigation into the cross-subsidies between and among Verizon New York, the state utility, and Verizon Wireless, a separate subsidiary.

While a vice president does need to defend the company that they are working for, Eve’s track record to make sure that Verizon succeeded over the public interest used testimony where the facts were more made up than factual. What we need at this time is a serious New York Attorney General that is going to fight for our rights, which are now being erased by Verizon et al.. There is a clear line between a fact and a public policy half truth or sound byte. Here are some details.

In New Jersey

This is how Leecia Eve categorized the NJ state consumer advocate’s (Division of Rate Counsel) analysis of a stipulation agreement between Verizon NJ and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, (“NJBPU”) — “fear mongering and misleading assertions”. This agreement allowed Verizon NJ to remove basic regulations on the remaining utility services, like phone service, and to raise rates, among other consumer harms.

NJ.com ran Ms. Eve’s opinion piece, May 18th, 2015.

“These are the facts. Fear mongering and misleading assertions, including those by the Division of Rate Counsel, an organization funded with tax-payer dollars, are a disservice to New Jerseyans. The stipulation is smart public policy that is good for New Jersey. The board should therefore approve it.”

This was the second stipulation agreement in New Jersey in just a few years. The previous stipulation agreement in 2014 killed off the existing state law, known as “Opportunity New Jersey”, (“ONJ”), that required Verizon NJ to have 100% of their territory covered with fiber optic services, capable of 45 Mbps in both directions to be completed by 2010. Instead of finishing this, Verizon was allowed to execute a bait-and-switch to substitute Wireless, at the speed of DSL, for the home-based high speed broadband connection.

Continue reading “Verizon VP Leecia Eve Should Not be the Next Attorney General of New York”

by William J. Broad | Original New York Times article here.

Doctors and scientists say microwave weapons strikes may have caused very real brain damage among embassy staff and family members. During the Cold War, Washington feared that Moscow was seeking to turn microwave radiation into covert weapons.

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S4WT Comment: Not just fears, but actual, documented harms to US embassy personnel from 1953 to 1978 at the American embassy in Moscow, as explained here.

Starting in 1964, US Embassy personnel were paid hazard pay based on their health damages. Hazard pay is the US Government’s recognition of the hazards of RF microwave radiation exposures at levels that are 0.2% to 2.8% of the current FCC RF microwave radiation maximum public exposure guideline (10,000,000 µW/m² for frequencies 1500 MHz and higher, as explained here.).

Dr. Neil Cherry wrote about the data:

"A highly remarkable result is the dose-response relationship for a range of illnesses. Despite the small numbers, the lack of long latency period and dilutionary factors, the data show significant increases in:

• Cardiac problems
• Neurological and psychological symptoms
• Altered blood cell counts
• Increased chromosome aberrations, and
• Elevated cancer in children and adults
• Sickness increasing in a dose-response manner with years of residence."

• The US studied the efffects of RF microwave radiation exposure levels inside the US embassy in Moscow; the RF-EMR levels were measured at between 20,000 µW/m² and 280,000 µW/m²

• For perspective, in 2018, peak RF microwave radiation exposure levels at five feet off the ground and 100 feet from a Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antenna – Wireless Telecommunications Facilty (CPMRA-WTF), aka a so-called "Small Cell", was measured at 170,000 µW/m² — photo | video.

• We must stop Telcos from building cell phone towers like this in front of homes | video.

Continue reading “Microwave Weapons Are, Once Again, Prime Suspects in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers”

Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD, University of California – San Diego | Original article here.

Writing in advance of the September 15 issue of Neural Computation, Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, says publicly reported symptoms and experiences of a "mystery illness" afflicting American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba and China strongly match known effects of pulsed radiofrequency/microwave electromagnetic (RF/MW) radiation.

Her conclusions, she said, may aid in the treatment of the diplomats (and affected family members) and assist U.S. government agencies seeking to determine the precise cause. More broadly, Golomb said her research draws attention to a larger population of people who are affected by similar health problems.

Beginning in 2016, personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba (as well as Canadian diplomats and family members) described hearing strange sounds, followed by development of an array of symptoms. The source of the health problems has not been determined. Though some officials and media have described the events as "sonic attacks," some experts on sound have rejected this explanation. In May of this year, the State Department reported that U.S. government employees in Guangzhou, China had also experienced similar sounds and health problems.

Affected diplomats and family members from both locations were medically evacuated to the U.S. for treatment, but despite multiple government investigations, an official explanation of events and subsequent illnesses has not been announced. At least two early published studies examining available data were inconclusive.

In her paper, scheduled to be published September 15 in Neural Computation, Golomb compared rates of described symptoms among diplomats with a published 2012 study of symptoms reported by people affected by electromagnetic radiation in Japan. By and large, she said the cited symptoms — headache, cognitive problems, sleep issues, irritability, nervousness or anxiety, dizziness and tinnitus (ringing in the ears) — occurred at strikingly similar rates.

Some diplomats reported hearing loss. That symptom was not assessed in both studies so rates could not be compared, but Golomb said it is widely reported in both conditions. She also noted that previous brain imaging research in persons affected by RF/ EMR "showed evidence of traumatic brain injury, paralleling reports in diplomats."

Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD

"I looked at what’s known about pulsed RF/MW in relation to diplomats’ experiences. Everything fits. The specifics of the varied sounds that the diplomats reported hearing during the apparent inciting episodes, such as chirping, ringing and buzzing, cohere in detail with known properties of so-called ‘microwave hearing,’ also known as the Frey effect.

And the symptoms that emerged fit, including the dominance of sleep problems, headaches and cognitive issues, as well as the distinctive prominence of auditory symptoms. Even objective findings reported on brain imaging fit with what has been reported for persons affected by RF/MW radiation."

Continue reading “Medical Researcher Links US Diplomats’ Illnesses to RF Microwave Radiation Exposures”

Purpose: To Expand Broadband To Over 700,000 Rural Homes And Businesses

Auction Allocated $1.5 Billion To Close the Digital Divide

• https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-353840A1.pdf
• https://www.fcc.gov/auction/903
• https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/maps/caf2-auction903-results/

The FCC CAF II reverse auction closed with an award of $1.5 billion to build broadband in rural America. This funding was awarded to 103 recipients that will collect the money over ten years. The funded projects must be 40% complete by the end of three years and 100% complete by the end of six years. The original money slated for the auction was almost $5 billion, but the reverse auction reduced the amount of awards and some census blocks got no bidders.

Overall, the auction will spread $1.5 billion of government funds to benefit companies serving 713,176 rural homes.

• Over 135,000 rural households will be getting fiber.
• Another 387,000 homes will be getting broadband of at least 25 Mbps, mostly using fixed wireless
• The remaining 190,000 homes will be getting the same satellite option they already have today.

The FCC claims that 713,176 rural homes will be getting better broadband, but the** real number** of homes with a benefit from the auction is 513,000 since the auction funded Viasat to provide already-existing satellite broadband to 190,000 homes in the auction.

The FCC claims that

• 19% of the homes covered by the grants will be offered gigabit speeds,
• 53% will be offered speeds of at least 100 Mbps and
• 99.75% will be offered speeds of at least 25 Mbps.

These statistics have me scratching my head. The 19% of the homes that will be offered gigabit speeds are obviously going to be getting fiber. I know a number of the winners who will be using the funds to help pay for fiber expansion. I can’t figure what technology accounts for the rest of the 53% of homes that supposedly will be able to get 100 Mbps speeds.

As I look through the filings I note that many of the fixed wireless providers claim that they can serve speeds over 100 Mbps.

It’s true that fixed wireless can be used to deliver 100 Mbps speeds. To achieve that speed customers either need to be close to the tower or else a wireless carrier has to dedicate extra resources to that customer to achieve that speed – meaning less of that tower can be used to serve other customers. I’m not aware of any WISPs that offer ubiquitous 100 Mbps speeds, because to do so means serving a relatively small number of customers from a given tower. To be fair to the WISPs, their CAF II filings also say they will be offering slower speeds like 25 Mbps and 50 Mbps.

The FCC exaggerated the results of the auction by claiming that any recipient capable of delivering 100 Mbps to a few customers will be delivering it to all customers – something that isn’t true. The fact is that not many of the households over the 19% getting fiber will ever buy 100 Mbps broadband. I know the FCC wants to get credit for improving rural broadband, but there is no reason to hype the results to be better than they are.

I also scratch my head wondering why Viasat was awarded $122 million in the auction. The company is the winner of funding for 190,595 households, or 26.7% of the households covered by the entire auction. Satellite broadband is every rural customer’s last choice for broadband. The latency is so poor on satellite broadband that it can’t be used for any real time applications like watching live video, making a Skype call, connecting to school networks to do homework or for connecting to a corporate WAN to work from home.

Why does satellite broadband even qualify for the CAF II funding? Viasat had to fight to get into the auction and their entry was opposed by groups like the American Cable Association. The Viasat satellites are already available to all of the households in the awarded footprint, so this seems like a huge government giveaway that won’t bring any new broadband option to the 190,000 homes.

It’s easy to compare this to the original CAF II program that gave billions to the big telcos and only required speeds of 10/1 Mbps.

• That original CAF II program was originally intended to be a reverse auction open to anybody, but at the last minute the FCC gave all of the money to the Big Telcos. One has to imagine there was a huge amount of lobbying done to achieve that giant giveaway.

• Most of the areas covered by the first CAF II program had higher household density than this auction pool, and a reverse auction would have attracted a lot of ISPs willing to invest in faster technologies than the Telcos. The results of this auction show that most of those millions of homes would have gotten broadband of at least 25 Mbps instead of the beefed-up DSL or cellular broadband they are getting through the Big Telcos.

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WASHINGTON, August 28, 2018 — Over 700,000 rural homes and small businesses will gain access to high-speed Internet service for the first time through the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund Phase II auction, auction results released today show, and 53% of 713,176 locations will have service available with download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second.

The auction allocated $1.5 billion in support to be distributed over the next 10 years to expand rural broadband service in unserved areas in 45 states. A total of 103 providers won support from the Connect America Fund to expand broadband in rural areas where, absent this funding, this type of broadband expansion and ongoing service would not be economically feasible.

The auction gave providers the flexibility to use any broadband technology to meet the FCC’s buildout and performance standards for fixed service. The auction design included a weighted preference for service with higher speeds, higher usage allowances, and lower latency.

• 19% will have 1.000 megabits per second
• 53% of all homes and businesses served with support from the auction will have broadband available with download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second.
• 711,389 locations—all but 0.25%—will have at 25 Mbps service or higher

Continue reading “2018 Connect America Fund Phase II Auction Results”

by Bob Fernandez 8/23/18. The original Philadelphia Inquirer is here.

When Verizon Communications Inc. proposed dozens of small wireless cells along streets in Doylestown, PA , the reaction was a defiant no.

• Doylestown Residents thought the boxy equipment that sprouted five-foot antennas on traffic lights or telephone poles would mar the borough’s Norman Rockwell charm, along with the artsy aura of its Victorian homes.

• Residents also opposed the well-documented health hazards that are created by intensive 4G and 5G wireless services that are planning to be installed close to homes and schools.

Other municipalities, including Lancaster, Abington and Haverford, have pushed back on small cells and forced some changes, as well..

Doylestown officials spent $150,000, held 10 public hearings and fought the small cell proposal in state and federal courts over more than a year, defending their right to say where the small cells would go — a David-vs.-Goliath tale of a small Pennsylvania town taking on a big corporation.

"We didn’t feel they had the right to come and do whatever they want," council president Jack O’Brien said Monday.

When Doylestown finally settled the case last month, the town won the right to reduce the number of poles as well as camouflage and relocate some of them. It also surprisingly won a 5 percent share of the revenues for the services Verizon or other companies sell through those cells, or a minimum of $750 a pole a year.

Continue reading “How One Town Took on 4G and 5G antennas”

by Matt Dunne, Aug 26, 2018 18; Original Wired article here.

With all the headlines about the lack of broadband in rural America, you’d be forgiven for thinking that all small towns are stuck in the dark age of dial-up internet.

The untold story of rural broadband is that over the past seven years, independent broadband networks have proliferated. Today, some of the fastest, most affordable internet in the country can be found in communities like

• Oskaloosa, Iowa (population:11,500);
• Powell, Wyoming (6,400);
• Red Wing, Minnesota (16,500); and
• Springfield, Vermont (9,000).

According to a 2016 Federal Communications Commission data release, more than 1,100 rural fiber broadband providers operate networks of various sizes in some of the most remote parts of America, and more than 230 of those providers offer symmetrical (both download and upload) gigabit speeds. Rural broadband deployment isn’t easy, but the biggest barriers to better connectivity are not simply geographical.

Twenty-one states currently have laws — lobbied for by incumbent Telecoms — that impede independent ISPs trying to deploy fiber.

Continue reading “Small Town Ingenuity Is Making Gigabit Broadband a Reality”

Sen. John McCain died exactly nine years after his friend Sen. Ted Kennedy — and of exactly the same thing: Glioblastoma, the deadly brain cancer often caused by pulsed, data-modulated, Radio-frequency Electromagnetic Microwave Radiation (RF-EMR) from Cellular telephones and infrastructure: Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antenna – Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (CPMRA-WTFs).

• New York Post: McCain and Ted Kennedy died of the same cancer – exactly 9 years apart
• Daily Beast: John McCain’s Brain Cancer, Glioblastoma, Is Nearly Impossible to Treat
• Arizona Republic: What is Glioblastoma, the cancer that killed McCain?

See also Glioblastoma Deaths in Washington, DC

No one will ever forget that McCain, just a few days after undergoing surgery to remove as much of his brain tumor as possible (a deadly Glioblastoma), on Fri 7/21/17, shortly before 2 a.m., McCain voted against against a “skinny” plan to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act.Several days later, McCain delivered an impassioned speech to encourage bi-Partisan health legislation, going forward.

Glioblastoma Facts

• The median survival rate (a measure of how long patients on the treatment tend to survive) is 14.6 months
• The percentage of people alive five years after receiving the diagnosis, is just 10%
• Glioblastoma also killed Senator Ted Kennedy, Vice President Joe Biden’s son, 46-year old Beau Biden, and the CA Senate’s own beloved Ira Ruskin, who lasted only three years after his diagnosis

McCain’s prognosis for his Glioblastoma was not good. McCain told 60 Minutes:

“They said that it’s very serious. That the prognosis is very, very serious. Some say three percent, some say 14 percent. You know, it’s a very poor prognosis”

We need to learn from John McCain. You might be surprised that John McCain was the only Republican Senator (and only one of five Senators) who voted against the Federal 1996 Telecommunications Act.

Here is what John McCain said in 2003, in the Congressional record, about the 1996 Telecommunications Act:

“Whether we agree with them or not, the FCC’s actions are a direct result of the direction given to it by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which should have been called ‘The Leave No Lobbyist Behind Act of 1996.’ . . . I voted against it because I thought it was an outrageous exercise of lobbying power and special interest power and would have enormous unintended as well as intended consequences; and the unintended consequences we are dealing with today . . .

In fact, the court — I think very appropriately — characterized the 1996 act’s deregulatory tone as not subtle but quite explicit, likening it to ‘Farragut’s order at the battle of Mobile Bay– Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead.’ That is how the court described the 1996 deregulatory act.”

Continue reading “Senator John McCain Dies of Glioblastoma”

By John Weigel, August 24, 2018 | Original article here.

On the eve of Pope Francis’ historic visit to Ireland, a Fellow of the Irish Computer Society has asked the Pope to protect children in Catholic schools from exposures to RF Microwave Radiation from Wi-Fi in classrooms. Pope Francis will visit Ireland this weekend, 25-26 August, for the World Meeting of Families 2018. Initiated by Pope John-Paul II, the meeting is held every three years.

The technology expert is a ‘Certified Wireless Professional’ and is a member of the Parents Association and former member of the ICT Group at a primary school in Co. Wicklow, located close to Ireland’s capital, Dublin.

The expert’s wireless experience dates back to 2000 and in 2003 he founded Ireland’s first Certified Wireless Network Provider. He cannot be named due to legal reasons, to protect his children and pending results of an investigation from the Irish government’s regulatory authority.

His company specialized in deploying a managed wi-fi service to residential apartment complexes – the service was called Invisible Access. Invisible Access was a managed wi-fi broadband service offering download speeds eight times faster than existing landline broadband services and cost less than half the money. Three years later he obtained the first European Test and Trial license for 70/80Ghz spectrum. After more than two years of working with the Irish Regulator, the National Broadcaster, the Department of Communications and other agencies he successfully completed the high-speed mm wave technologies now a reality in Ireland.

The expert’s message is a massive turnaround from being dubbed in 2004 by the Irish Times newspaper as a ‘Man on a Mission’ to bring high-speed wireless internet access to apartment complexes and housing estates across Ireland. In 2005 he secured the first European Test and Trial license from the Irish telecommunications regulator followed in 2006 by receiving the honor of Fellow from the Irish Computer Society for his contribution to the Irish wireless industry.

Continue reading “Irish Tech Expert Asks Pope to Stop RF Microwave Radiation Exposures in Catholic Schools”

By K.T. Weaver, Augsut 24, 2018; Original article here.

A few days ago I reported on a ruling in the smart meter-related case of Naperville Smart Meter Awareness (NSMA) v. City of Naperville (Case 1:11-cv-09299)¹.

Since then, there have been several articles in other blogs on the same topic, many of which I considered to be inaccurate or extremely biased. One this morning by Naked Security, however, I considered to be objective and accurate (and shorter than mine), so I thought I would provide a synopsis and link to it to provide a different perspective.

As stated in the latest article ²

"US cities using smart meters narrowly escaped a legal problem this month when a court decided that the benefits of these IoT devices outweighed the privacy issues created by collecting detailed home energy data.

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, a federal court that oversees appeals for Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, ruled against a privacy advocacy group called Naperville Smart Meter Awareness (NSMA). …

It ruled that using technology to peek in detail at goings-on inside peoples’ homes every 15 minutes does constitute a search, but decided that the search was reasonable. …

It decided that smart meter data collection is not very intrusive because the data isn’t used to prosecute people. …

The court had a caveat, though, and warned the City that the balance could change. It concluded:

‘We caution, however, that our holding depends on the particular circumstances of this case. Were a city to collect the data at shorter intervals, our conclusion could change. Likewise, our conclusion might change if the data was more easily accessible to law enforcement or other city officials outside the utility.’"

Continue reading “Smart Meter Data Collection is a Search, but Court Allows It Anyway”