NOLA Free Wi-fi Prompts BellSouth to Withdraw Donation

[iconoclastNYC]

First BellSouth's CEO starts talking up his plans to destroy the Internet by erecting anti-competitive speedbumps to companies that don't pony up the cash for "premium" access to it's broadband customers. Now the cold hearted company is going back on a promise to give flood-destroyed NOLA a building.

From Slashdot: "Shortly after learning of the New Orleans plan for free city-wide wireless internet, Bellsouth Corp. withdrew an offer to donate a damaged building to be used for police headquarters. According to the Washington Post, 'Bill Oliver, angrily rescinded the offer of the building in a conversation with New Orleans homeland security director Terry Ebbert.'"

From Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/02/AR2005120201853.html

"Hours after New Orleans officials announced Tuesday that they would deploy a city-owned, wireless Internet network in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, regional phone giant BellSouth Corp. withdrew an offer to donate one of its damaged buildings that would have housed new police headquarters, city officials said yesterday.

According to the officials, the head of BellSouth's Louisiana operations, Bill Oliver, angrily rescinded the offer of the building in a conversation with New Orleans homeland security director Terry Ebbert, who oversees the roughly 1,650-member police force.

City officials said BellSouth was upset about the plan to bring high-speed Internet access for free to homes and businesses to help stimulate resettlement and relocation to the devastated city. Around the country, large telephone companies have aggressively lobbied against localities launching their own Internet networks, arguing that they amount to taxpayer-funded competition. Some states have laws prohibiting them."

I wish I was a BellSouth customer so I call and cancel all my accounts and switch to a provider.

[Toucano]

1. Is BellSouth suggesting they AREN'T taxpayer-funded?

Will all the Bush tax cuts directed at corporations and the super-rich, pretty much all large corporations are now "taxpayer funded".

Corporate welfare is taxpayer funded.

[glitch]

2. How petty - must be a republican. nt

[dusmcj]

3. poor widdew business boys

can't compete against public projects ? the poor little free market has its mediocrities exposed when it has to compete with the output of organizations that don't spend their days wallowing in the melodrama of fighting for business survival ? That's such a shame, I feel so sorry for America's business community.

[VegasWolf]

4. We are a big corporation because we screw the unions and little guys. nt

:puke:

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. That is fucking unbelievable

I mean, WOW!

[Webster Green]

6. BellSouth sucks!

Worst phone service I ever saw was when I had BellSouth in Florida. Nothing ever fucking worked, and the techs who came out were completely clueless.

Not surprising that they are rethuglican fascist asswipes.

[Shakespeare]

7. Greedy fucking bastards.

Gavin Newsom has said several months ago he wants to do the same thing in San Francisco, and the phone companies HOWLED with outrage.

[ColonelTom]

8. Boy, am I glad I dumped my BellSouth land line!

Though, in truth, this sort of tit-for-tat isn't all that out of character for big business - it's just a little more blunt and obvious in this case.

[centristo]

9. I almost feel sorry for Bellsouth's PR department

spin! Spin damn you! must...make...evil corporation...seem benevolent...arghh!

hahaha, they're not paying those people enough. what an ass.

[MrPrax]

10. Typical...

The usual free marketeer whimper...WAH WAH we can't compete...we stop building better mousetraps long ago


You know that IF state and capital move to increasingly limited NET solutions for communication/data capture with the masses, then there really should be a discussion akin to the Public airwaves debate in the 20s and 30s.

Amazing how we have changed as a culture--once when we invented media things it was a noble social ideal to find ways of distributing them to the masses (rabbit ears! the great leveler)

...NOW gov't is simply used as a vehicle to help limit access based entirely on what 'disinterested' third parties (shareholders) feel they need to get by on and 'where' the market will be hence.

Some states have laws prohibiting them.

Simply amazing that a State can simply OUTLAW other distribution/revenue models and favor only one expensive solution that doesn't even ensure that the money spent is never kept in the community for improvements...



No Cheap Laptops For You...

[jsamuel]

11. free internet means free electronic communication, which means no more Bel

lSouth

He knows what this could mean if it caught on.

[A Simple Game]

22. Free internet means

freedom of speech.

Why does Bell South want to take away our freedom of speech.

[FizzFuzz]

12. bushco and big biz--birds of a feather

how disgusting.

I hope lots and lots of people learn about Mr. Oliver's tender heart and dump BellSouth.

[nashville_brook]

13. omfg --- this is going out on my list

everyone needs to see this!

i don't know who i hate more: healthcare companies or phone companies.

also, tho -- this points up the friction we KNOW we have to deal with vis a vis progressive technology displacing capital. that little apple wozniak built in the garage is growing up and we have to deal with it's impact. no, the capitalists don't like it one bit that they have become and are becoming more IRRELEVANT by the day. the "machines" are fighting back.

what are we going to do about it?

[Goldensilence]

14. disgusting yet

some people will fight you tooth and nail soon as they find out you are a socialist who wants to "Take away their freedoms". If freedom means higher prices, lower wages, more hours, less benefits, and just a lower quality of life in general for all. yes. I want to take away your freedom.

The oligarchy marches forward now.

[DirtyDawg]

15. The Reality is...

...that the BellSouth's of this country use their 'philanthropy' strategically. It's common practice for corporations to expect something of a 'quid pro guo' for their contributions. I imagine that BellSouth, who by the way has been one of the corporations that steadfastly kept their investment and presence in New Orleans over the years while others were pulling out, had been working with the city to enhance just this kind of connectivity for some time, only to have a 'johnny come lately' carpetbagger jump in to paint a picture for the gullible city fathers.

Communities all over the country have been falling for this 'free internet' connectivity scam - see Marietta Georgia - investing huge taxpayer dollars into a system (and not with the local phone company, of course) only to eventually sell it off at a loss...probably to a group of well-placed contributors. Folks, water ain't free, garbage pick-up ain't free, electricity ain't free, phone service ain't free, natural gas ain't free...why in blazes does New Orleans expect that they'll be able to provide internet access - remember, the technology changes constantly - without somebody having to pay for it...like taxpayers?

[iconoclastNYC]

23. BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT

Your post is so full of garbage I don't know where to start.

I'd like you to back any of your assertions up with any sort of link.

#1 BellSouth's committment to NOLA
#2. Free Internet failing, anywhere.
#3. HUGE INVESTMENTS for free internet.
#4. Any sell offs.

WIFI is cheap to implement (hardware available at any frigging BESTBUY) and easy to administer. Cities that charge for the service charge something like $10 versus $50 that BellSouth will take for DSL.


If community access Internet was such a horrible idea and failing as you assert (lie) then the telcos woudln't need to spend millions on lobbyists to get bills passed to prohibit them.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DirtyDawg]

31. Oh yeah...

#2-Marietta, Georgia
#3-Marietta, Georgia
#4-Marietta, Georgia

#1-Billions and billions in technology for decades and decades

[iconoclastNYC]

24. BTW

You are trying to say that this is an example of "no such thing as a free lunch"

If your city taxes, say 30 million are spent on building a WIFI network it's obviously not free. You've paid for it with your taxes.

Difference is that you pay for it ONCE...with your share of the 30 million. Versus leasing out a DSL line which you pay for every month.

The dirty secret in TELCO is that TELCO has been cheap for the past 15 years because electronics are dropping in price so much. Yet fees are high as ever.

That's why the TELCOs are scared. Public wireless will blow the lid of thier scam.

Why don't you bash Public power too. We know what a HUGE failure that has been (but don't ask anyone who has public power, they might just rave about the fact that thier rates are lower then the nationa average.)

[dmr]

27. I'll rave about public power!

My village supplies our electric, and while I don't know what the percentage difference is from the rest of Long Island, the difference is startling less. Another bonus to public power occured when we still had electricity when the rest of the country lost all power a couple of years ago. Since there is no enormous payouts to executives and stockholders, the citizens benefit through lower rates. I'm very happy with our personalized electric service.

[brentspeak]

34. WRONG

The infrastructure that enables the internet to exist in the first place -- telephone lines, cable lines, etc. -- has already been paid for by our municipal tax dollars. For most towns and cities in America, the bills were paid by residents decades ago. Companies like BellSouth and Verizon don't even own the lines, nor have they even paid for them -- the towns own the lines, and town residents have paid for them. But thanks to sweetheart deals following wine-and-dine sessions with politicians, the telephone and cable companies throughout the nation have obtained exclusive rights to the telephone and cable lines.

My question is: what happened to our nation's anti-trust laws?

[steelyboo]

37. You have no clue what you are talking about

I work for Bellsouth as an Outside Plant Tech... a lineman. My job is to build the lines that you are talking about. Municipal taxes are not used, some universal service fund fees are given for access jobs to schools, hospitals, and rural areas, but most of it is paid for by Bellsouth. We own the lines, we pay for the lines, and we charge to use the lines. Even the lines that already exist have to be maintained, the shit don't last a lifetime. We don't own most of the poles, the power companies do, and we have to rent space on them, just like most cable companies. Exclusive rights? Well, pre-96 telcom act, you might be right. Did you know that under that act, the baby bells had to sell access to their networks to companies like MCI that wanted in on the local phone game? And they had to sell it at a loss,i.e. less than it costs to set up and run the lines. So we lost money there. Couple that with the fact that if MCI sold that service to a customer, where do you think that customer came from? You guessed it, one of Bellsouth's. So, they loose money twice.

P.S. to all of you that are hoping Bellsouth gets shut down, thanks, I don't mind living on the street so you guys can feel better that a community that most of you don't live in gets some free internet. (not to mention we are talking about a city and state government that is world reknown for its corruption, has it dawned on you that perhaps there is more to this than what you have read?)

[Noxmtbnk]

16. A$$HOLE$!!!

n/t

[newyawker99]

20. Hi Noxmtbnk!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[deadmessengers]

17. Awesome!

I was going to dump HellSouth in favor of Vonage this week anyway! Now I have a perfect answer for the "why are you leaving us" question.

[mwooldri]

18. Not many options other than BS here...

but I at least am not dependent on them.

If you go for a competing local phone service then BS still wins because it has to sell and service those same lines. We had local and long distance with Birch Telecom for a time: they provided good service and when anything went wrong, a BS engineer came out to fix the problem.

It means that effectively in the area I live I have a choice of BS or Time Warner Cable. With TWC I can use VOIP over a cable broadband line. So our house phone service is VOIP now, and yes we have cell phones too - and I have battery backup for the VOIP/computer boxes.

So I got rid of the BS from our home... but still have to deal with Time Warner for communications services.

Mark.

[Javaman]

19. hey bellsouth and all you other baby bells, here comes the future!!!

get the fuck out of the way!!!

greedy bastards. Fuck them. internet should be free to the masses. it's disgusting that we have to pay for it.

[rateyes]

21. Bellsouth is my business' phone and internet provider...

I just sent them an e-mail asking them to explain both this rescinded offer and the CEO's wish to charge web-sites for premium access to its customers. I told them my continued loyalty to Bellsouth depended on their answer. And, it will. I get to make that decision. Waiting for an answer.

:popcorn:

[hunter]

25. Instead of looking for the opportunity they beg for protection.

That's the way big business in the United States works now. It's all about crybaby billionaires throwing temper tantrums.

[KamaAina]

26. We're discussing this on one of the rebuilding boards

this one is run by those wonderful folks who blogged from their CBD office building throughout the crisis.

http://nola.us/forum/showthread.php?t=492

Two DUers are participating in this discussion so far. It may be taking a VERY productive direction...

[petepillow]

28. damn thats harsh.

what a bunch of bastards. thats, like, catty an' shit.

[Tsiyu]

29. Bellsouth is no friend to Americans

It was Bellsouth ( when they were SouthernBell) we FOUGHT to keep from tearing down the historic Fox Theater in Atlanta.

And I was a Bellsouth customer once - they sucked at customer service.

Bellsouth: giving new meaning to American greed

[rayofreason]

32. maybe I'll dump Bellsouth...

...and go cable, with VOIP as well. Cable companies have nice, integrated packages these days (phone, internet, digital cable with lots of movies). Bellsouth should pay attention and be careful about pissing people off in a competitive environment.

[anotherdrew]

33. so let the city take it with eminent domain! condemn it and take it

to hell with bell south

[justabob]

35. And I thought SBC was bad... geez nt

[BootinUp]

36. At least they (BellSouth) suck at PR

This kind of news really doesn't help their cause, lol.