Topic: Telecommunications

“Just say no” to domestic spying

By Chris Lugo | June 28, 2008 |

Big brother is watching you and his name is AT&T. Sometimes he goes by the name of BellSouth and at other times he is known as AOL-Time-Warner. Big brother goes by a lot of names. He is listening to you while you talk and watching you while you type and everything you say could be recorded so he can look at it somewhere down the line.

Now everyone knows that it is not polite to intrude on people in their private moments. The problem is that big brother doesn’t seem to know that peeking into people’s private communication is wrong and it should be illegal. Unfortunately President Bush wants to continue to grant immunity to telecommunications companies in the name of the so called ‘war on terror’ which in actuality is a war on the American people and the telecommunications infrastructure is the front line in the gradual diminishment of civil rights that Congress has permitted in recent years. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Events, Issues, Opinion, Politics, Spirituality, Technology | No Comments

Verizon, AT&T and the manipulation of public opinion

April 10, 2007 |

Needed: Blacks, Hispanics, disabled, deaf, low-income and the elderly to support the telecoms’ positions on anti-consumer FCC rulings and legislation.

DEFINITIONS:

• Astroturf—An organization set up by a large corporation or corporations to put forward the corporate agenda but to look like an authentic ‘grass-roots’ group.
• Co-opted—An authentic group that is given funding by a large corporation or corporations, where the group lobbies for corporate initiatives even if they are contrary to the needs of its members.
• Skunkworks—A well coordinated campaign funded by large corporations (or industries) that incorporates Astroturf and co-opted groups, research think tanks, PR firms, lobbying firms, state and federal politicians to put forward the corporate agenda on a specific topic.

Over the last few weeks numerous groups have been lobbying and hyping the corporate position of AT&T and Verizon for relaxed cable franchise requirements or to stop any net neutrality legislation. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Issues, Politics | 1 Comment »

A guest commentary by Karl Bode of DSL Reports

By Bill Larson | November 1, 2006 |

This commentary was not originally written for Clarksville Online. I want to thank Karl Bode of DSL Reports for giving me permission to republish this article here for you. I felt it was something that you should see. Thank you Karl!

If you wish to read the original version complete with user commentary please feel free!

Municipal Report: Bogus Experts, Bogus Concern
Faking interest in broadband deployment to maximize revenue
Posted 2006-10-31 20:31:09 by Karl

Editorial: Outfits such as the Reason Foundation, Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Foundation are free-market think tanks that proudly proclaim that eliminating government oversight in the broadband sector will result in broadband utopia. Their editorials and position papers insist they are concerned with “optimizing broadband deployment” in this country. However the real agenda, as always, is maximizing revenue for themselves and their constituents by eliminating all regulation, creating an utterly toothless regulatory authority, and letting the nation’s largest corporations run wild. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, Politics | No Comments

Charter Sucks!

By Tom Paine | July 4, 2006 |

It’s not often that I vent on a business — I know how hard it can be in this competitive world to satisfy ever more demanding customers. But I am about over Charter Communications. For over a month now, we have had missing channels and bad reception. We made an appointment and they never showed up, which doesn’t leave you feeling particularly good about having wasted a day to be there for them. Nor were they particularly apologetic about not showing up.

And every time you try to get a response from them, you are back to square one: you have to navigate a phone menu that resembles chinese water torture more than anything else. If and when you do get a human being, it’s a whole new world — you have to explain all over again what the problem is. And they will want you to make yet another appointment. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Opinion | 6 Comments

Clarksville Department of Electricity requests to provide additional services

By Bill Larson | June 14, 2006 |

Information has become the lifeblood of the 21st century. Much like Water, Electricity, and Natural gas. Inexpensive access to data, is something that our city needs to fuel it’s growth in the coming years. Without a modern and reliable data infrastructure we will not be able to attract new businesses to our city, and thus our citizens will miss out on the associated economic opportunities, which new businesses bring with them. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, News, Politics | 5 Comments