NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] [IP] Governor Christie's New Scandal: Verizon's Fiber-Optic-"Digital Bridge" Gate.
On March 7, 2014 at 3:28:16 PM, Bruce Kushnick (bruce@newnetworks.com) wrote: Governor Christie's New Scandal: Verizon's Fiber-Optic-"Digital Bridge" Gate. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/the-contime-merger-do-we-_b_4839339.html It is now clear that while Governor Christie is embroiled in 'bridgegate', which is about clogging and blocking of traffic movement over a bridge, another scandal is brewing. Christie's New Jersey Board of Public Utilities is about to close the digital highways to 1/3 or 1/2 of the State's residential and business customers, not to mention harming schools, libraries, hospitals or the municipalities' services and economic growth in these areas. President Obama has announced plans for 'bridging the digital divide'. In this scandal, Governor Christie's State Commission, his Attorney General's Office and the state Consumer Rate Counsel are planning to allow Verizon to simply erase the laws and commitments to have 100% of Verizon New Jersey's territory upgraded, replacing the old copper wires with a fiber optic service capable of 45 Mbps in both directions -- and it was supposed to be done by the year 2010. That's right. Back in 1991, Verizon New Jersey claimed it would make New Jersey the first fully fiberized state with a plan called "Opportunity New Jersey". Customers paid Verizon about $15 billion dollars in excess phone charges (and tax perks) to do this construction for over two decades, not to mention additional rate increases along the way-- and these increase have been built into current rates for the last 2+ decades. And yet, on January 29th, 2014, the NJ Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) offered Verizon a stipulation agreement that will extinguish this commitment, which is only partially done. I'll get back to this. I wasn't suspicious until I started digging into why the NJBPU would take this ridiculous path. In fact, the State had actually woken up in 2012 and issued a 'show cause order', asking Verizon why two towns, Greenwich and Stow Creek, weren't already upgraded. And in 2013, the State ordered Verizon to do the work. But, what caught my eye was this -- two weeks before, on January 14th, 2014, a new President of the Board of Public Utilities was installed and she was not only chosen by Governor Christie, but is part of his cabinet. "Dianne Solomon was named by Governor Christopher J. Christie as President to the N.J. Board of Public Utilities (BPU) on January 14, 2014. President Dianne Solomon also serves as a member of the Governor's Cabinet. President Solomon was nominated by Governor Chris Christie to serve as Commissioner to the Board of Public Utilities on April 17, 2013, and confirmed by the New Jersey Senate on June 27, 2013." And all the State had to do was to just enforce the laws. All it had to say was - 'You didn't complete the job. Now upgrade 100% of your state territory or we'll audit the books and have you give back the money' Instead, we ask - Is it a coincidence that the State decided to erase the laws at this juncture? Does Governor Christie know about this or was it his decision? There's an underbelly to this. To read the rest of this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/the-contime-merger-do-we-_b_4839339.html This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. _______________________________________________ Open Infrastructure Alliance http://lists.bway.net/listinfo/oia ----- End forwarded message ----- --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad