ALBANY AND TROY TO FCC: DON’T LET
VERIZON SLAM THE DOOR ON OUR HIGH-SPEED FUTURE
Elected Officials, Community Groups Ask for FCC to Reject Verizons’
Proposed Collusion with Cable Companies in Comments Filed With the Agency
Secretive Deal Would End Competition and Mean Fewer Choices, Poorer Service, and Higher Prices for Consumers for Cable and Online Service
Albany, NY – A group of elected officials and advocates came together in the Capital District today to oppose a secretive new deal being cooked up by Verizon subsidiary Verizon Wireless and some of the nation’s biggest cable companies that would lead to higher prices, slower service, and fewer options for Capital Region consumers. The elected officials and advocates filled comments opposing the deal today with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has authority to reject the deal. Verizon Wireless, Comcast and Time Warner are attempting to create an unchecked monopoly to exclusively sell and market each other’s products. This proposed corporate alliance — if approved by the FCC and the Department of Justice — would limit competition, raise prices, kill jobs and lead more and more consumers to buy their cable, home phone, internet and cell phone service from a single monopoly provider.
In today’s economy, having access to affordable high-speed internet is as important for success – for communities and individuals – as having electricity,” said Bob Cohen, Policy Director of Citizen Action of New York, and a Rensselaer County resident. “If the Federal Communications Commission approves of Verizon’s new scheme with cable companies, fiber-optic technology might never come to Albany, Troy and Rensselaer County, and neither would real competition. The Commission must ensure that Verizon builds FiOS through Verizon’s entire service area to create cable competition and jobs. This deal creates collusion, not competition.”
The proposed deal has two parts. Verizon Wireless and major cable companies will jointly market each other’s products, allowing them to offer a “quadruple play” of video, internet access, voice and wireless service that would eliminate competition. Verizon Wireless would also pay $3.9 billion to buy large segments of the wireless spectrum from Comcast, Time Warner, and Bright House Networks, resulting in a an excessive concentration of public spectrum in the hands of only a few corporate players.
“This type of agreement is not in the best interest of those who need to get and stay connected the most: low income communities and families. This is a step backwards in bridging the digital divide, and builds an additional socio-economic barrier. Television and internet access are tools for learning in our community. Often not affordable at home, computer centers at the library, church, synagogue, or mosque provide access to the world for students and parents alike. As President of the Albany Common Council, I appeal to you to do what is right and not to deny the city and its residents full access to the broadband technology of the future,” said Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin.
“The deal before the Federal Communications Commission between Verizon and Time Warner and other cable giants will leave Albany residents behind,” said Richard Conti, who represents Albany’s 6th Ward on the Albany Common Council. “Unless serious changes are made to the deal, I’m afraid Albany residents will be faced with higher prices and inferior services for Internet, telephone, and cable than in the surrounding communities, making it that much harder to encourage people to live in and start businesses in Albany.”
“The budgets of my constituents are stretched thin already. The last thing we need is for a profitable corporation like Verizon to eliminate competition so that they can charge us more money for worse service and fewer options,” said Leah Golby, who also serves on the Albany Common Council (10th Ward).
The proposed deal would also deter any expansion of Verizon’s high-speed fiber-optic FiOS network, killing significant numbers of jobs. FiOS is available in several of Albany’s suburbs, but Verizon has not made its service available in the City of Albany which has a far lower mean income in 2010 ($49,075 vs. $71,824 in 2010) and percentage of African-Americans and Hispanics than the County as a whole (30.8% vs. 8.5% in the case of African-Americans). Similarly, the City of Troy in Rensselaer County, which had a far lower median income in the 2006-2010 period than the average for New York State ($36,675 vs. $55,603), does not have FiOS service. As is the case in many northeastern and upstate New York cities, Verizon has created a digital divide that puts people of color and low-income communities at a disadvantage as education, economic development and access to critical services increasingly depend on access to a high-speed internet connection.
Verizon Wireless and the cable companies are refusing to come clean about the details of the deal. Even as the FCC and Department of Justice review it, large portions of the deal have been redacted, preventing an analysis of the deal’s real impact. As opposition to the proposed deal grows across the country, tens of thousands of consumers have voiced their opposition to this corporate collusion, by signing a petition urging the FCC to reject the deal between Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner.
Signing onto the Capital District comments filed today with the FCC were: the Capital District Chapter of Citizen Action of New York, Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin, Albany Common Council Members Richard Conti, Leah Golby, and Barbara Smith, Troy City Council President Pro Tempore Nina Nichols, Albany County Legislator Douglas Bullock, the Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region, the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans, the Upstate Division of 1199 Service Employees International Union, the Center for Working Families, John VanDenburgh (President of Communication Workers of America Local 1118, based in Albany, NY, signing individually) and Dominic Patrignani (President of the International Union of Electrical Workers – Communication Workers of America Local 81359, based in Waterford, NY, also signing individually).
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