By Doug Wood and Bruce Kushnick
Telephone customers across the country who have been paying frequent price increases and extra fees on their phone bills for years to finance a national fiber optic network are today demanding that the FCC refuse to grant telecoms $9 billion to build out their 5G wireless networks until they complete the fiber-optic network they have been promising since the 1990s.
More than 100 organizations representing thousands of Americans are participating in the campaign.
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to announce a $9 billion “5G Fund for Rural America,” to support the deployment of 5G mobile wireless broadband and voice services. This is designed to bring broadband to some of the most rural parts of the country, where, the agency claims, there is not a “business case” for providing the service.
“If the phone companies had finished building out the fiber-optic network they promised years ago, there would be no rural divide,” says Bruce Kushnick, a former telecommunications analyst turned whistleblower, whose organization, IRREGULATORS, is taking legal actions to recover billions from the telecoms for consumers. “There would be no urban divide, and we wouldn’t be hearing about the ‘homework divide’ either, because everyone in America would be hooked up to a low-cost, ultra-reliable, secure and safe fiber-optic network.”
“It’s outrageous that the telecoms are using this national emergency to try to get billions from the government to build out their private wireless networks,” says Doug Wood, founder of non-profit Americans for Responsible Technology, which advocates for curbing the deployment of 5G. “These companies collected billions in fees from hard-working Americans, and then stiffed them out of the fiber-optic network they paid for. The FCC has no business helping those who have already helped themselves.”
Critics of the multi-billion-dollar fund for 5G say fiber-optic networks are faster, more reliable, more secure, and have none of the RF exposure issues associated with wireless technology. Over the past few years there has been a growing consumer backlash against the deployment of 5G “small cell” antennas, especially in suburban areas where homeowners fear declining property values. Town boards from New York to California are electing to deny permits and risk lawsuits from wireless companies because of citizen objections to the 5G build-out.
More information visit http://irregulators.org