In 1993 in California, people were charged thousands of dollars per household for the installment of fiber optic broadband. Pac Bell California announced that by the year 2000 millions of homes will receive the upgrade. Time has passed and it seems that most companies charge for services which should be free or less costly. AT&T is in the middle of the scandal.
More details you should know
Between the years 2008-2016, the basic price for phone service of the AT&T California went up 138%. Other services were even more expensive: other parts which included services like nonlisted numbers or directory assistance calling went even higher (from 525% to 1891%). Another feature which went up 9240%) was Call Waiting. Some of these services cost less than a penny, meaning AT&T and other companies of a sort are making pure profit.
Another detail less known is the fact that companies such as AT&T use the exact copper wired from landlines phone services for U-verse.
The State is also harming the customer by allowing companies to charge their price without consistency, meaning they can charge and change the costs at any time they feel like it.
The NY State Public Service Commission is investigating
Verizon New York is being investigated by the NY State Public Service Commission for massive cross-subsidies between the wire line state utility and the company’s affiliates. Now, AT&T California is doing the same.
In 1996, Pacific Telesis (AT&T California) Investor Fact Book has a registry in which the company was supposed to make the state a fiber optic state. These services never showed up, even if customers charged billions of extra dollars. The three major instances of false claims to increase rates have been: 1993-2004: The Information Superhighway and Competition, 2005: The U-verse Bait and Switch, the current one: The wireless small cell, 5G.
