[1st-mile-nm] CenturyLink Accepts Nearly $506 Million in Annual Support from Connect America Fund

[John Brown]

You have to be buddy buddy with someone political in NM.

There is a City in NM that will or has spent $1,000,000 to build about
1.5 to 2 miles of fiber with a provider that has never built fiber
before.
Yet in another City in NM there is a provider that spends around $90K
to build a mile of fiber, and has done so for years.
The one with no experience and higher costs wins.   When challenged
the City takes a loophole saying they didn't need to put it out to bid
anyway.


CenturyLink recently responded to a governmental bid request for
Gigabit service.  They bid $260K per year.
Other respondents bid was 10th that price.
No award was made.

State of NM put out a bid for internet access.  They wrote the
requirements such that only CenturyLink, TWTC (now Level3) or similar
could respond.
They had a requirement that bidders had to have demonstrated 10 or
more years providing gigabit services.  Hmm.  lets see. Its 2015.  So
10 years ago would be 2005.  Seems only ten years before that and this
thing called the Internet was just really getting started (at least
commercially).  So the state of NM required that a provider had to
have been around for at least 50% of the entire time the market has
been around ??

Completely blocks new, more nimble, competitive, providers from
providing better services, lower costs, etc.

There was a provider that went out of business, so the VC took the
ashes and formed a new provider, said in Federal paperwork that they
have been providing services for 10 years, blah blah. Wanted to go
provide wireless services in rural markets.  Made a ARA (BIP or BTOP,
I forget which one) application, said the markets they wanted to serve
had NO providers at the time.  They got the Federal money, spent it,
and then had to get bailed out by a vendor....  Oh and wait, there
were already multiple existing service providers in those markets,
some even made their own application for ARA money, but didn't get it.

The list goes on......



On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 5:11 PM, Michael Harris <mharris at visgence.com> wrote:
> So I see notices of these awards somewhat regularly, and yes, it would be
> great if the money go go to a local ISP instead of a big telco. Where/how
> would a local ISP go about applying for this fund or others like it? There
> is precious little information on the FCC's website, and the USDA grants
> requests I've read about on here don't just say "go here, download this
> form, and mail to so-and-so."
>
> Anyone have ideas? Links? Contacts?
>
> -Michael
>
> On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 5:04 PM, Richard Lowenberg <rl at 1st-mile.org> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for the comment, Chris.   I easily agree.
>>
>> Additionally, concerning is that the FCC is subsidizing less than
>> its stated minimum bandwidth recommendation, with The Connect America Fund
>> support enabling CenturyLink to deliver broadband at speeds of often
>> no more than 10 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps uploads to nearly 1.2
>> million
>> homes and businesses in its rural service areas (where the cost of
>> broadband
>> deployment might otherwise be prohibitive).   This action will only
>> perpetuate the widening of the rural digital divide for millions.
>>
>> RL
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2015-08-27 13:59, Christopher Mitchell wrote:
>>>
>>> I would love to see what some of the local providers could do with $11
>>> million. Though it may not reach 25,000 in the same time span that
>>> CenturyLink can owing to its historic monopoly, I suspect the social
>>> benefits would be significantly larger and would actually lead to more
>>> investment in the future. Dumping more money into a monopoly that has
>>> little ambition to ever meet the needs of its captive audience is a
>>> bad decision.
>>>
>>> Seeing government put $11 million into a company that offers such a
>>> poor service, whether measured technically or by the customer service,
>>> is upsetting.
>>>
>>> Not that this is the fault of the employees, who I have no doubt work
>>> hard. But rather a system designed in the interests of a few to the
>>> detriment of most of us.
>>>
>>> Christopher Mitchell
>>> Director, Community Broadband Networks
>>> Institute for Local Self-Reliance
>>>
>>> http://www.muninetworks.org [5]
>>>
>>> @communitynets
>>> 612-276-3456 x209 [6]
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 2:54 PM, Richard Lowenberg <rl at 1st-mile.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> CenturyLink Accepts Nearly $506 Million in Annual Support from
>>>> Connect America Fund to Expand
>>>> and Support Broadband for Over 2.3 Million Consumers in 33 States.
>>>>
>>>> The Connect America Fund support will enable CenturyLink to deliver
>>>> broadband at speeds of at
>>>> least 10 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps uploads to nearly 1.2 million
>>>> homes and businesses in
>>>> its rural service areas where the cost of broadband deployment might
>>>> otherwise be prohibitive.
>>>>
>>>> “CenturyLink’s acceptance of over one-half billion dollars from
>>>> the Connect America Fund
>>>> represents a huge investment in broadband for its rural
>>>> customers,” said FCC Chairman Tom
>>>> Wheeler. “This is the largest amount accepted by any company to
>>>> date – and the opportunities
>>>> that modern broadband will provide for the rural communities
>>>> CenturyLink serves are priceless.”
>>>>
>>>> The allocation in NM:
>>>> Number of homes and businesses reached: 25,308
>>>> Amount to be spent: $10,942,747
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0827/DOC-335071A1.pdf
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 1st-mile-nm mailing list
>>> 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
>>> http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/1st-mile-nm
>>
>>
>> --
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>> Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
>> 1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
>> Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
>> rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Harris
> --
> President, Visgence Inc.
> www.visgence.com
>
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