There are definitely times when you learn of a business practice where you think, "Wow, my opinion of AT&T could not go any lower." And then, BOOM. You find out that AT&T was intentionally underfunding a 9-11 call center in order to undercut its competitors in bids.

Yikes.

Did we mention that this is not an isolated case? AT&T has been busted in several jurisdictions for this practice.

Hat tip to Stop the Cap! for bringing my attention to a lawsuit brought by Hamilton County against AT&T for its practice of under-reporting the number of business lines it provides.

This practice allows it to undercut all competitors in the market, including the community fiber network run by Chattanooga's Electric Power Board. From the Times Free Press article:

The lawsuit claims that, since at least July 2001, AT&T has filed monthly and annual reports listing fewer business phone lines than they actually provide. Under Tennessee law, phone companies must pay $3 per month per line to pay for 911 access.

...

In a March phone service bid proposal for Hamilton County, AT&T stated it would not collect the $3 rate and instead collect $2 per line per month. That allowed the company to underbid the next lowest bidder by 69 cents per line per month, “unlawfully increasing its profits at the expense of revenue to support the critical emergency services that” 911 provided, according to court records.

A difference of $.69 may not seem like much, until you consider they may be providing 1,000 lines - which is a difference of $690/month or $8,280/year.

It is an incredible racket. AT&T gets more high-margin customers, pays less in fees than competitors, and the only people who get hurt are those who depend on 9-11.

Just when you think AT&T is brilliantly evil (an accusation I tend not to make against many corporations no matter how much I disapprove of their practices), you have to consider how incredibly incompetent they are. They freakin' including this fraudulent activity in a bid for county services!!!

AT&T has settled out of court with other counties in Tennessee and Madison County, Alabama, for similar pratices.

Remember folks, AT&T is one of the of companies on whom Congress, the President, and FCC, are expecting to invest in America to build the broadband networks we need and run them in a way that does not cripple our economy. That is not a plan, it is an abdication of responsibility.

Minnesota's Governor Dayton has already done more for expanding broadband access in Minnesota than predecessor Pawlenty who took the "stay quiet and hope for the best" approach to expanding access in our state.

After being prodded by the legislature (including now-Lieutenant Governor Prettner-Solon) Governor Pawlenty appointed an industry-heavy "Ultra High Speed" Broadband Task Force that exceeded the expectations of many, including myself, with its report [pdf]. I give a lot of credit to a few members, especially "Mikey" and Chairman Rick King of Thomsen Reuters, for that report given the constraints of the environment in which it existed.

Minnesota's Legislature and Governor Pawlenty then created some goals for 2015 and generally ceased any work on ensuring Minnesota could meet the goals. However, some departments (like the Department of Commerce) are using that language to prod broadband providers to consider what steps they can take to get us closer. Despite my frustration, I want to recognize those who are doing all they can to expand access to this essential infrastructure.

Fast forward to this week, when Governor Dayton announced a new Task Force that is supposed to really do things (as opposed to the more common Task Force approach of creating the appearance of doing things).

I am heartened by many of the appointees. There are some terrific people, especially some terrific women who are too often under-represented in technology) that will work very hard to bring real broadband to the Minnesotans that either need their first option or a better option.

And they have their work cut out for them. The state has few options to compel investment from a private sector that sees little reason to invest in an industry with so little competition (St Paul has one high-speed provider: Comcast, and one slower, cheaper alternative - CenturyLink).

For instance, rural Kanabec County took the Ultra High Speed Task Force's recommendation and asked its incumbent to partner in providing better broadband. That went over about the same as every other community that has sought a partnership with a big out-of-state incumbent provider. At least CenturyLink did respond, not all incumbent providers have the grace to do so:

“After receiving your letter I requested that my management team report back to me on the costs associated with your request for a minimum 10 MB speed to every home and business within the county. For proprietary reasons I’m unable to share with you the estimated costs of meeting this goal in Kanabec County.”

The letter continued, “However, I can tell you that it represents many millions of dollars at a significant cost per household or business passed that under current business models do not generate a return on the investment.”

The Task Force will hear strong voices from within and without its members calling on it to reduce government barriers to private sector investment, whether by gutting local authority over rights-of-way or other means. I encourage it to tell the state to first, get out of the way of communities that want to build their own networks.

Any community that has the willingness to invest in itself should have that right. There is no reason for the state to prefer that massive out-of-state companies with poor track records in Minnesota build networks rather than the communities themselves. The community has a much greater incentive to invest today and tomorrow in modern technologies. Whereas private companies are looking for handouts to serve places like Sibley County, Sibley County is just looking for the state to get out of the way.

Requiring a 65% referendum for a community to build its own network is ludicrous -- and it is Minnesota law. We are the only state in the nation with a supermajority requirement for a community to build essential infrastructure. I just wrote about Longmont, where their massively successful referendum campaign got 60% of the vote -- a loser in Minnesota. Despite absolutely no support from any local leaders, Comcast was able to get 40% support by simply outspending the grassroots community broadband movement $300,000 to $5,000.

Removing this barrier to local authority for community broadband will not bring border to border broadband -- many communities simply do not want to take on the responsibility of building a next-generation networks -- but it will certainly bring us closer, and it will bring much better networks to those communities that are willing to step up and invest in themselves.

Photo by Jackanapes, used under creative commons license.

Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes, may soon also be the land of Countywide rural FTTH. Yet another County is doing a feasibility study to figure out how it can bring fast, affordable, and reliable broadband access to all of its citizens.

Redwood County’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) opted to move forward with a broadband feasibility study that would determine just what the county would need to do in order to get fiber to every premises.

…

The study, which is being conducted by the Blandin Foundation through what is known as the Robust Broad-band Networks Feasibility Grant Program.

The grant, which includes up to $40,000 for the county as it addresses the needs of every community and farm site from one end of the county to the other, requires matching funds, which are available through the county EDA.

Redwood County is in an interesting area, just north of the Windom area muni FTTH networks and west of the proposed project in Sibley and Renville counties. This study comes not long after Todd County started a feasibility study as well (the the latest on that). And though we haven't discussed it much on MuniNetworks.org, Lac qui Parle County to the northwest is working with a rural telephone cooperative to bring FTTH to many in their border as well.

And then beyond them, we have Cook County going FTTH with their electric coop and Lake County going its own way, both with the assistance of the broadband stimulus awards.

Minnesota could very well become the state with the most impressive rural connections. Unfortunately, thus far we have seen no assistance from the state in this matter, but perhaps the Dayton Administration will chart a new course. He has decided to appoint a new Governor's Task Force on Broadband as well as a Broadband Development Office within the Department of Commerce. Those interested can learn more from Blandin on Broadband.

Blandin on Broadband also has more information about Redwood Falls.

Todd County, a rural community "where the forest meets the prairie" along I-94 in the geographic center of Minnesota, is the latest of many counties to examine local solutions to their lack of affordable, fast, reliable, and certainly universal access to the Internet. This could be a blueprint for how to initiate a process to improve broadband in a rural community.

Todd County is quite rural, with about 10,000 households and businesses that could be wired for service.

From what I have learned, this initiative originated with a group of beef farmers who are tired of being left behind on the rural world wide wait. They pushed the Todd County Livestock Advisory Committee, which pushed on the County, which approved the following resolution [pdf]:

RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT TO ESTABLISH RECIPROCAL BROADBAND SERVICES COUNTY WIDE, KNOWN HEREAFTER AS TODD COUNTY FIBERBAND

WHEREAS, the world’s cultural and economic environment is becoming increasingly more knowledge-driven and information-based, and Todd County citizens, businesses, and agriculture need access to that information, and;

WHEREAS, research indicates that introduction of broadband in to rural areas increases the rate of job growth and income of rural areas and that the presence of broadband in a community is the greatest indicator of future economic success, and;

WHEREAS, broadband access has evolved from a luxury and entertainment item to an essential infrastructure for business, health care, education and government and the speeds needed to maintain local and global competitiveness are greater than telecommunication companies serving Todd County are willing to provide, and;

WHEREAS, demand exists for broadband access, but without a concerted and unified effort being made to obtain appropriate access for the citizens of Todd County, it is likely that demand will not be met, and;

WHEREAS, this body wants its citizens to maintain the highest quality of life and its businesses to be as competitive and productive as possible, the highest speed, highest capacity broadband, and other telecommunications services are critical for maintaining a healthy and competitive community, and;

WHEREAS, high speed, high capacity access to telecommunications services should be thought of as an essential public service that should be available to all citizens of Todd County, similar to the way the street and highway system is available to all citizens, and;

WHEREAS, private sector providers are currently unwilling and/or unable to provide the highest speed, highest capacity access to broadband services to the citizens and businesses of Todd County via last mile fiber, wireless or other means.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,

1. That this body supports any action to establish by any means legally available, a municipal telecommunications utility system county wide that provides the highest speed (reciprocal) internet, highest capacity access to broadband services, and;
2. with the passage of this resolution this body supports efforts to bring reasonably priced, stable and accessible quality broadband access to all places in Todd County, and;
3. that this body supports and adopts the following goals:
   1. All places within the city limits of a city within Todd County shall have fiber to the premise broadband services at a reasonable price no later than 2014, and;
   2. All places within Todd County, regardless of location, shall be able to access quality broadband services at speeds of no less than 20 mbps download, and 10 mbps upload by no later than 2016.
4. That this effort will from this point forward be known as the “Todd County Fiberband Initiative”.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that all resolutions or parts of resolutions in conflict with the Resolution are hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict and that provisions of this Resolution are hereby declared to be separable and if any section, phrase or provision shall for any reason be declared to be invalid, such declaration shall not affect the validity of the remainder of the sections, phrases and provisions hereof.

Note that they set goals and are prepared to build a network to meet them -- compare that to the state of Minnesota, which set hollow goals and identified no path to actually achieving them. This is one reason we prefer local governments more involved -- they are far more likely to actually get something done.

Todd County's next step was to reach out to many in the community with the following letter as well as copies of a blank letter of support [pdf] and a clean copy of the resolution [pdf] for additional organizations to show their support.

On behalf of the Todd County Board of Commissioners, the Todd County Development Corporation, the Long Prairie Healthy Communities Partnership, the Todd County Healthy Communities Partnership and the Todd County Livestock Advisory Committee you and/or your organization are invited to sign on in support of the Todd County Fiberband Initiative.  

Broadband is quickly becoming a necessary infrastructure, and its uses are growing beyond our local capacity.  The Todd County Board and other organizations feel strongly that the time is now to take this in to the hands of the community.  Todd County must come together as a community to stand up for our future. 

Please join the Todd County Board of Commissioners and other organizations throughout Todd County in supporting deployment and availability of high speed, reciprocal broadband to be available throughout this area.  Also, please feel free to share this letter and resolution with any individual or entity you think may be interested.  Should you desire more information or an electronic copy of these enclosures, please contact: 

Staples Word, a local newspaper covered the impressive news and noted that Staples had already started its own feasibility study.

Swanville, a nearby town straddling the county line, decided to wait on supporting the resolution to see what happened in following steps.

On May 2, the Todd County Development Corporation officially joined the effort by passing a resolution in support of Fiberband.

The first big meeting to discuss the idea came on May 12, with a meeting at the Long Prairie/Grey Eagle high school with 75-80 people in attendance for a panel and discussion. This is an impressive turnout considering the early stages and long drive for some attendees.

The Independent News Herald offered an excellent recap of the meeting, including some of the comments from speakers:

He [Mark Birkholz of Arvig Communications Systems] also talked a little about the National Broadband Plan which entails delivering 100mg service to 100 million homes.

“For the others, they say that 4 mg will be fast enough. Imagine walking along the freeway at 3 to 5 miles per hour as the cars on the freeway are zipping past you at 75 mph. That is what the 4 mg service would be like,” said Birkholz.

Karl Samp from the Blandin Foundation also stopped in briefly to speak. He said that change was coming and that it is the only constant.

“If you want to compete in this economy and have your kids come back, you have to have high speed,” he said.

Mark Erickson of Fiber to the Farm in Sibley County (which we have written about previously) spoke about their motivations and lessons learned.

The meeting showed enough interest for the County to commit $20,000 to a feasibility study. Arvig, a potential private partner, has put up another $20,000 and the Blandin Foundation has put up a match of $40,000 to get the study rolling. Blandin's match support in other communities has been very helpful to communities who are reluctant to put too much money into a study that may tell them the network is too difficult and expensive to build.