---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20180314205157.GA10293@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2018 16:51:57 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Judge rules for AT&T on key part of Time Warner deal defense by Jessica Schneider and Hadas Gold A federal judge has rejected a Justice Department motion to limit evidence AT&T can present in its defense of its proposed purchase of Time Warner, which is set to go to trial next week. As a result of the ruling, AT&T gets to keep one key element of its argument for the deal, after previously losing another significant fight over its planned defense. In a motion filed Tuesday, the government asked the court to exclude evidence of a November 2017 offer from Turner (a division of Time Warner that includes CNN, TBS, and TNT) to distributors including cable and satellite companies. http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/13/media/att-time-warner-arbitration-argument/index.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180314175302.GA9769@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2018 13:53:02 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon Forced to Repair Broadband Infrastructure It Has Literally Let Fall Apart A new settlement requires Verizon to replace bad cable, defective equipment, and faulty back-up batteries - and to take down 64,000 double telephone poles or pole stumps. By Karl Bode A half-decade ago, Verizon executives decided they'd try and convert a stodgy old telecom monopoly into a sexy new advertising juggernaut. To accomplish this goal, Verizon bought both AOL and Yahoo, mashed them together into a new brand named Oath, and promised to challenge Google and Facebook's dominance of online advertising. But Verizon's clumsy pivot has resulted in millions of frustrated DSL customers up and down the east coast who say Verizon's fascination with video advertising has resulted in a systemic neglect of its core businesses. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pam7yn/verizon-forced-to-repair-broadband-infrastructure-it-has-literally-let-fall-apart -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180314203137.GA10228@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2018 16:31:37 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon Wireless Closing a Third of US Call Centers, Cutting Customer Service Jobs WASHINGTON, DC -- Verizon Wireless announced plans last month to close six call center locations across the country, which will result in elimination of approximately 3,000 customer service jobs. Only half of the 6,500 positions currently at the affected call centers in Huntsville, Ala., Little Rock, Ark., Mankato, Minn., Albuquerque, N.M., Hilliard, Ohio and North Charleston, S.C. will remain as the company transitions to a home-based customer service representative model over the next year. Verizon is characterizing these closures as a necessary part of its transition to a home-based workforce at six of its 18 existing call centers. But this "transition" masks the employment loss that will result. https://www.lightreading.com/business-employment/headcount/verizon-wireless-closing-a-third-of-us-call-centers-cutting-customer-service-jobs/d/d-id/741388 --- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ***** Moderator's Note ***** For three weeks recently, I was training for a work-at-home job. I thought I was going to be helping customers to install WiFi units. I found out that I was going to be subcontracted out as a customer service representative for MegaCableCorp. One of the first things the instructor taught us was that we couldn't use the company equipment or conference lines or group-chat capability unless we were on the clock, and that we were forbidden to talk to each other on our own time. And now, Verizon Wireless is joining the rush to place indentured servants in remote villages and hamlets and apartments. If my brief stay at the company that was training me to be happy voice for MegaCableCorp is any guide, I can't think of a better plan to prevent union organizers from talking to workers: they not only would have, for practical purposes, volunteered to capitalize Verizon Wireless' infrastructure by providing floor space and insurance and heating/ cooling in return for something like fifty cents per hour, but they are also would be expected to forego any rights to organize - or talk about the possibility - in return for their de minimis pay and medieval supervision. Welcome to the future. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180314204021.GA10258@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2018 16:40:21 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Clarksburg Police respond to CWA strike-related incident Friday by Charles Young CLARKSBURG - The Clarksburg Police Department responded to reports of a disturbance outside the U.S. Cellular location on Emily Drive Friday morning involving striking Communications Workers of America members, according to Clarksburg Police Chief Robbie Hilliard. CWA members have been on strike since Sunday to protest the expiration of the contract between 1,400 CWA members in West Virginia and Virginia, and Frontier Communications. https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/clarksburg-police-respond-to-cwa-strike-related-incident-friday-on/article_009fa9f0-9efe-5906-97c8-ed0c07a4d927.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Thu, 15 Mar 2018