[conspire] (forw) Raw Bandwidth and other competitive Internet access providers need your help at the FCC today!

[Howard Susman]

On 08/29/2018 02:55 AM, Rick Moen wrote:
> Let me be really direct about this:  You, the reader, benefit from at
> least one mailing list running on linuxmafia.com.  Raw Bandwidth Communications
> makes linuxmafia.com's Internet presence at my house feasible.
>
> If you want it to continue to exist, prove it:  Use Mike Durkin's
> tips below to register your comments at the FCC, no later than Sept.
> 5th.  This matters.
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2018 00:17:30 -0700
> From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> To: conspire at linuxmafia.com
> Subject: [conspire] (forw) Raw Bandwidth and other competitive Internet
> 	access providers need your help at the FCC today!
> Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.
>
> _Note Sept. 5th deadline_ for comments at FCC.
> Note provided URL for further information.
>
> This appears to be what subscriber Fred Brockman was warning about, on
> the 17th, at
> http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/conspire/2018-August/009335.html .
> (Thanks, Fred.)
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Mike Durkin <mdurkin at rawbw.com> -----
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2018 00:05:58 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Mike Durkin <mdurkin at rawbw.com>
> To: [my invoicing address]
> Subject: Raw Bandwidth and other competitive Internet access providers need
> 	your help at the FCC today!
>
> Dear Raw Bandwidth Customer or former customer:
>
> It's a rarity that I email all of our customers (and some former
> customers), but we are at a critical moment for competitive Internet
> access, so I hope you'll excuse the intrusion.
>
> In early May, USTelecom, a lobbying group headed by large incumbent
> monopoly phone companies AT&T and Verizon, filed a petition at the Federal
> Communications Commission (FCC) to "forbear", that is to no longer enforce,
> provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which are critical to many
> independent Internet access providers like Raw Bandwidth reaching its
> customers with service.  The Telecom Act rewrite in 1996 requires the
> incumbent phone companies to unbundle and rent discrete network elements to
> competitors at regulated rates--especially elements such as the pairs
> of copper wire running through the streets that they have a monopoly
> over and have no competition for--so that competitive providers
> can also use the elements in their services.   I am writing to ask
> you to take action by filing comments at the FCC in support of independent
> Internet access providers (we'll help you do it), to tell the FCC what
> it means to you to have choice in your Internet provider, and to urge
> them to deny the petition. (The petition would also affect competition
> for voice phone service.)
>
> Here is a good article that summarizes a lot of what's at stake:
> https://www.engadget.com/2018/07/11/small-internet-providers-face-a-fight-for-their-lives/
> (Note this article says the FCC would vote on the petition on August
> 6th, but that's incorrect; August 6th was a filing deadline for
> opening comments, and September 5th is the next deadline for reply
> comments.  The FCC won't vote on the petition until late this year
> at the earliest, but informal comments need to be filed now.)
>
> Explaining what's at stake takes a lot of words, so I've made a web
> page that explains what the petition is all about, and also contains
> links to help you easily file comments at the FCC (all done online) to
> support competitive Internet access.   Please take a look at the web
> page and instructions here
> http://www.rawbandwidth.com/clec/forbearancepetition.html
>
> The short version is that if the FCC grants the petition as requested,
> independent DSL and Ethernet over Copper providers like Raw Bandwidth
> will see cost increases (due to removal of rate regulation from
> monopoly network elements only available from incumbent monopoly providers
> like AT&T--a single provider of the element to any particular location) that
> will result in an increase in retail rates, and some coverage areas are
> likely to be lost over time.  The petition should not be granted under
> the standards it is supposed to be judged on, and providers like Raw
> Bandwidth are filing detailed rebuttals to the petition, but the current
> FCC and political climate is one for gutting regulations, so despite that
> it should be denied, there is a significant risk that it may be granted.
>
> Please take the time to weigh in with the FCC and tell them how important
> it is to you to have competitive choices at competitive prices, and urge
> them to deny the petition.  Your comments submitted to the FCC by
> September 5th are important!
>
> I don't intend to send any followups to this email by email so as
> not to be any more intrusive.  Instead I will post updates to the status
> of the petition at the same web page
> http://www.rawbandwidth.com/clec/forbearancepetition.html
> including links to the FCC's decision once available and an explanation of
> how the result affects our business and service to customers.
>
> As always, thanks for your business and support!
> Mike Durkin
> Raw Bandwidth
> mdurkin at rawbw.com
>
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
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> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
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I will definitely send comments.  Not only does rawbandwith enable 
linuxmafia, but it also hosts my business scsurplus.com.