Has the phone company pulled a fast one on you lately? The answer is yes if you've been listening to the so-called Consumers for Cable Choice (CCC). Busy with a new anti-cable website and costly marketing campaigns and governmental lobbying, the CCC apparently hasn't found time to let Americans know that the RBOCs – Verizon and SBC, in particular -- have a heavy hand in the "coalition's" operations and provide significant funding to the "coalition."

Searching the ‘WHOIS’ database for the owner of consumers4choice.org and mycablenightmare.com domains brings up an identity-concealing registrar called Domains by Proxy. The self-proclaimed goal of this company is to hide the identity of organizations who don’t want their particulars revealed when registering website domains.

Wonder if CCC has something to hide? You bet they do.

The truth is that the ultimate goal of this misleading “astroturf” ploy has little to do with consumer protection and everything to do with lobbying to relax franchising rules that benefit the RBOCs. Why else would Verizon and SBC fund this “consumer coalition?”

A revealing study by Larstan Business Reports delves further into the hidden agenda and the hidden money behind CCC and its aggressive online presence:
The Bell telephone companies are pushing Congress to repeal anti-discrimination rules in the 1984 Cable Act. Those rules prohibit discrimination, within a service territory, by any communications company that provides cable television service. The Bell telephone companies - anxious to get into the television services industry - are asking Congress to repeal these and other rules which empower local governments to protect their communities. Similar bills also are being considered in several states, including California, New Jersey, Michigan, Virginia, and elsewhere.

And if you think the phone companies are looking out for the little guy, think again:
The Bells have made clear that they intend to deploy new fiber networks capable of delivering video services mostly to wealthy neighborhoods. SBC Communications told Wall Street investors that it intended to roll out the new network almost entirely for their "high value" customers while redlining most of their "low value" customers. Verizon has announced a similar business plan for its new fiber rollouts. Both companies have come under widespread criticism from civil rights leaders, including C. Delores Tucker in a recent op-ed in The Washington Post.

The San Francisco Chronicle, which dubbed the CCC a “stalking horse for the special interest of the large phone companies,” traced the organization’s suspect lineage in its article, Cable ‘Coalitions’ Sketchy. In addition, The Larstan Business Report study points an accusatory finger at three related groups whose positions have flip-flopped suspiciously in favor of the Bells recently: the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA), Frontiers of Freedom (FOF), and the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies.

It’s important to understand that the tactics of this “coalition” of so-called “consumer groups” are not the innocuous grassroots marketing campaigns they claim to be. Rather, they are highly strategized maneuvers to manipulate the landscape through misrepresentation to consumers. Legitimate consumer groups do not take money from the RBOCs or other corporate interests – not without compromising their independence, credibility and integrity.

So if the CCC calls on you, you’d be wise not to answer the phone.

LINKS

San Francisco Chronicle – Cable ‘Coalitions’ Sketchy – David Lazarus
Multi Channel News - Telcos ‘Feed’ Grassroots Group – Linda Haugsted
Larstan Business Reports -- Records Indicate Bells Engaged in “Astroturf” Lobbying
The site in question – MyCableNightmare.com
The organization in question – Consumers for Cable Choice
Domains by proxy – Domains by Proxy