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Preface
Almost
everyone in America knows how to use a telephone
and almost everyone picks up a phone every day to
make or answer a call. Unfortunately, almost no one
understands their telephone bill. Worse: almost no
one knows that they have been paying, for years,
for services that they never ordered and that will
probably never be delivered anytime soon.
And we believe you're owed money - hundreds of
dollars per-line.
The Information Superhighway was supposed to be
America's shining, high-technology future. With
millions of miles of super-special glass wires,
known as fiber-optics, attached to ultra-modern,
all digital telephone network switches, every home
in America would be connected to a dazzling array
of new products and services - 500 channels of
movies, shopping, and games, all coming soon to the
TV.
And, of course, there was supposed to be
Tele-Learning, Tele-Medicine, Tele-Anything; things
so wonderous that even science fiction couldn't
predict them.
The primary finding of this tale is that instead of
building this wonderous highway, the Baby Bells,
the progeny of AT&T in the form of seven, very
large holding companies that were created in 1984,
most likely pocketed the money. We estimate that it
comes to about $30 billion dollars to date
(1991-1997) and another $7.5 billion in 1998. And
they left America with POTS: Plain Old Telephone
Service.
And that $30 billion dollars is really billions of
extra pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters that
you, your company, your family, friends, cousins,
relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances are paying
through overcharges on their telephone bills. You
paid for and did not receive the new fiber-optic
future.
This largesse is based on a fact: in exchange for
the removal of state regulations that controlled
profits, known as "deregulation", the Bells
promised to build the fiber-optic Info Highway. By
1998 there was supposed to be almost 27 million
Info Highway fiber-optic homes. Almost half of
America, 45 million, would be wired by the year
2000. Today virtually none exist. Also, large
consulting firms, including Deloitte & Touche,
charged millions of dollars for studies to
corroborate the Bells' story.
In a complaint filed with the New Jersey Public
Service Commission by the New Jersey Public
Advocate, March, 1997, the fiber-optic future is
definitely being paid for, but not delivered. In
April 97, the Advocate told The New York Times.
(1)
"...low-income and residential customers have paid
for the fiber-optic wire lines every month but had
not yet benefited. "
What's worse, Info-Scandal overcharging for the
I-Way is only part of a long tale of abuse, which
started right at their birth in 1984. It adds an
additional $85-$100 billion of questionable
overcharges by the Bells, bringing the total to
about $14.5 billion annually. In fact, we believe
you're owed a lot of money, about $500-$1,500 per
line, but without proper audits it's hard to be
exact.
What's $14 billion a year between friends, right?
And we need to stress one point: most of the money
in question is not from the long distance
companies, such as AT&T, MCI and Sprint, but
from the local phone companies affectionately
called the Baby Bells. They are arguably the
fattest babies in history.
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