Kentucky Telephone Companies Pushing For Option To End Basic Service 157
An anonymous reader writes "There is a bill pending in the Kentucky State Senate that would eliminate almost all Public Service Commission oversight over local phone companies. Written by AT&T lobbyists, SB135 is being pushed by the phone companies as a 'modernization' of rules. It would keep the PSC from investigating phone service on its own and eliminate rules concerning price discrimination, price increases, required published rates, and performance objectives. It also will prevent any state agency from imposing net neutrality, and will enable phone companies to use the fact that there are cell phones to refuse to run a land line. The text of the bill is available online."
Re:Hilarious! (Score:3, Informative)
As a citizen immigrant to Harlan County, I can speak to the lack of coverage here. Appalachian Wireless, the local major CDMA carrier, does provide a large coverage area. AT&T, the most popular wireless provider in the area, does not. Verizon does have a single tower, as does T-Mobile (though I can't understand why), though their coverage is non-existent beyond the Harlan city limits.
AT&T acquiring T-Mobile would in no way expand their service offerings to the rest of the county/surrounding area. They have absolutely no interest in improving service quality or speed, as we are extremely small potatoes when compared to their major metro customers.
The thing is that AT&T already has sufficient spectrum licensed to cover the entire mountain-riddled county, if they so desired. They have repeatedly and consistently stated that they have no intentions of expanding their current coverage zones in the county. The last tower erected for AT&T was only done so after they lost more than 2500 customers (as if that is a lot) to Appalachian Wireless.
As it stands, T-Mobile's coverage is simply a token to say that they have it, just like that of Verizon. AT&T's call quality is abysmal, their prices are too high for the services offered and their data speed is basically unusable, as they only offer overloaded, under-provisioned EDGE. At least Verizon and Appalachian Wireless offer EVDO.
If you live in Harlan County and own an AT&T iPhone, you learn to love sporadic open wireless hotspots, or you suck it up and pay AT&T for a Microcell. Right, because paying AT&T not to improve their infrastructure clearly sounds like a fair deal for the customer.
This place is often a great example of "The Land That Time Forgot."