[DDN] REDACTED: Your Rights. FCC Data and Order on Local and Long Distance Market Harms VOIP, Competition, and Customers.

[Bruce Kushnick]

Teletruth News Alert: September 6th, 2007

On web: http://www.newnetworks.com/Redactedstory.htm    

REDACTED: Your Rights.  FCC Data and Order on Local and Long Distance Market
Harms VOIP, Competition, and Customers.

FCC to Public: Trust US:  "AT&T's market share of stand-alone, interstate,
long distance services ranges from [REDACTED] percent to [REDACTED] percent,
with a median market share of [REDACTED] percent.   The respective figures
for Verizon are [REDACTED] percent, [REDACTED] percent, and [REDACTED]
percent."

WRITE THE FCC: GET THE REAL DATA: (SEE BELOW) 

In a covert operation, the FCC released an important order the Friday before
Labor Day, August 31st, 2007 -- maybe no one would notice.  The FCC is
rewriting the rules and allowing the phone companies to intermix their local
and long distance service offerings, data, etc. This harms VOIP providers,
all competitors, and all information about the market. It also harms every
customer who pays a phone bill. 

Here's the FCC ORDER: 8/31/07, FCC Replaces Outmoded Long-Distance Rules
With New Protections For Consumers. News Release: FCC 07-159 (Order)
http://www.fcc.gov     

To explain the overall impacts and intricacies of this would take hours. Let
us summarize the worst problem: The FCC's phone charges data is so bad it
has no basis for making any decision. Worse, the only new data the FCC is
dispersing is being redacted, covered-up. 

Here's a sample of the Order COVER-UP:  Teletruth's Favorite: 

"[1] Id.  AT&T's market share ranges from [REDACTED] with an accompanying
HHI of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED].  See
Appendix C, Table 3 for individual state results for Frame Relay services
within AT&T's franchise areas with more than 30 observations.
[1] Appendix C, Table 4.  Bell Atlantic's market share ranges from
[REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] with an
accompanying HHI of [REDACTED].
[1] Id.  GTE's market share ranges from [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI
of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED].
[1] Id.  Bell Atlantic's market share ranges from [REDACTED] with an
accompanying HHI of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of
[REDACTED]."

And this is throughout the entire document. (see sample)
http://www.newnetworks.com/fccredactedsamples.htm    

The FCC also claims it is too complicated to get accurate data. 

"As discussed above, an increasing number of customers are shifting to
bundled service offerings and away from stand-alone long distance offerings.
We acknowledge the conceptual difficulties associated with estimating market
shares for this bundled services market."

Worse, because the numbers look like an anti-trust case waiting to happen,
the FCC claims that the numbers submitted 'overstates' the market share
Verizon and AT&T have, thus no anti-competitive problem. 

"...these market shares likely overstate AT&T's and Verizon's respective
shares of the interstate long distance market, and their potential market
power, for a number of reasons."  

More redacted information is supplied to support that observation. (See the
samples.)

Teletruth previously filed a Data Quality Act Complaint claiming that the
FCC was using bad data pertaining to phone charges by AT&T and Verizon and
that bad data harmed customers. 
http://www.newnetworks.com/dataqualityharvest.htm           

We also raised questions about long distance market share and bundling, as
well as low, medium and high-volume customers, using actual phone bills as
our data. And we pointed out that the FCC had no clue about phone bundling
statistical accuracy. The FCC stated in one report: 

"For some households taking bundled local and long distance service, it was
impossible to separate the bill into its component parts. In those cases,
the entire bill was allocated to the local exchange service provider."  

Read the FCC's rejection letter, as well as our appeal: 
http://www.teletruth.org/docs/FCCphoneDQA.pdf    
Our appeal: 
http://www.teletruth.org/docs/DQAAPPEALPHONECHARGES.doc      

Now the FCC claims it can redact any information to make a case, and not
have to show it to anybody. Worse, the FCC does not even trust the data
inputs from the phone companies -- so it covers everything over. 

Like the FCC Broadband report data that is being contested in the courts, it
is time to get accurate information about how powerful AT&T and Verizon have
become in the market. See: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/78957   

The FCC will claim that this benefits consumers and that they have cut a
deal to get low volume users lower rates. However, Read the fine print in
the AT&T letter. 
http://www.teletruth.org/docs/ATTLDCOMMITT.PDF    

The changes are only voluntary and customer only gets lower rates if you
already are a customer of AT&T or Verizon in their region --- and then the
offer expires. It makes no claims of lowering stand-alone services or that
the other 'bogus' charges that have been added to America's phone bills will
be taken off. In fact, Teletruth guarantees that the bills will still be
unreadable, deceptive and inaccurate.

This sweetheart cover-up now gives the local phone monopoly more control
over your phone services and less choice.  We also believe the data may also
prove very damaging in that it can be used to demonstrate that the Bell
mergers were all a mistake, increasing their market power in the their
primary markets. 

ASK THE FCC COMMISSIONERS: http://www.fcc.gov      
Write the Commissioners: How many low volume customers are there in America?
How many stand alone long distance customers are there? Has AT&T and Verizon
market share increased? Can you understand your phone bill today? Did the
mergers harm customers? 

Bruce Kushnick, Teletruth, bruce at teletruth.org        
Tom Allibone, Teletruth, tom at teletruth.org