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AT&T Gave FCC False Broadband-Coverage Data In Parts of 20 States (arstechnica.com) 28

Posted by BeauHD from the data-error dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: AT&T falsely reported to the Federal Communications Commission that it offers broadband in nearly 3,600 census blocks spread across parts of 20 states. AT&T disclosed the error to the FCC in a filing a week ago. The filing provides "a list of census blocks AT&T previously reported as having broadband deployment at speeds of at least 25Mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream that AT&T has removed from its Form 477 reports." The 78-page list includes nearly 3,600 blocks.

With Form 477 reports, ISPs are required to tell the FCC which census blocks they offer service in. The FCC uses the data to track broadband-deployment progress and, crucially, to decide which census blocks get government funding for deploying Internet service. AT&T falsely reporting broadband-data coverage could prevent other ISPs from getting that funding and leave Americans without broadband access. When contacted by Ars, AT&T said the mistake was caused by a software problem. "The updates to the census blocks address an issue with a third party's geocoding software. There has been no change to our service area and this doesn't affect the service we provide our customers," AT&T told Ars.
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AT&T Gave FCC False Broadband-Coverage Data In Parts of 20 States More

AT&T Gave FCC False Broadband-Coverage Data In Parts of 20 States

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  • The "third party geocoding software error" reminds me of some early geolocation things like where if an IP address didn't have a geolocation listed, it defaulted to the center of the USA, a lake on some farmer's land.

    He got raided a few times because the lake came up when authorities tracked a pedo or other criminal activity IP address to the lake, as his place was the closest.

    As much as I love to hate on ATT, this is something I can see being a genuine mistake.

    • "As much as I love to hate on ATT, this is something I can see being a genuine mistake."

      Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

      • "As much as I love to hate on ATT, this is something I can see being a genuine mistake."

        Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

        This only applies to the percentage of errors that go both directions. If 50% of the errors help the company, and 50% hurt it, then it makes sense to blame stupidity. However, when over 99% of the errors, or even 100% of the errors, help the company, and involve something they disagreed with in the first place, then you only have less than 1% of the errors that would be predicted to be based on stupidity.

        You can only simplify the equation so far as it doesn't change the results; Occam's Razor insists that y

    • Re:Problems with Geocoding (Score:5, Insightful)

      by CanadianMacFan ( 1900244 ) on Saturday April 18, 2020 @09:35AM (#59961636)

      Not a mistake but a plan to ask for a grant. Now they'll go, "Oops, may we have some funding to expand broadband out to the areas that we had said we served? We'll make sure that that those people know that you were instrumental in brining them 'Broadband for the Future!' *TM "

      The politicians will buy it, AT&T will get their money, execs will get their bonuses, shareholders will get their dividends, and the people won't get their broadband. AT&T pointed out their error right when Washington is handing out trillions to keep the economy going with little oversight. What a strange coincidence, don't you think?

      I'm not saying that AT&T is doing this because I don't have proof. However, the telcos have taken money before and not delivered on promised to install broadband in rural areas. Plus the timing of admitting this error happening right when the federal government is handing out tons of money to large corporations seems strange.

  • This is no shocker at least for me (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Revek ( 133289 ) on Friday April 17, 2020 @05:22PM (#59960166)
    I was the one man sysadmin for a small ISP for eleven years. We looked at their coverage and knew it was bullshit. They were offering 20 meg citywide when they couldn't give you that speed a hundred feet from their dslam. They couldn't offer that speed until 2018 when they started selling bonded adsl.

    • They were offering 20 meg citywide when they couldn't give you that speed a hundred feet from their dslam. They couldn't offer that speed until 2018 when they started selling bonded adsl.

      At which point I'd wager they starting offering 100 meg that they couldn't deliver.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Revek ( 133289 )
        They tried a fifty meg in one of our towns. We were already selling 8 channel 75 meg. One of the saving graces of the guy who owned the company is that he quit overselling and would upgrade the bandwidth when we needed it. The bad part is that he sold out last year and the new company either didn't listen or didn't care when I told them we would be at capacity by February. Now it lags every night.

  • Were the errors generally in their favor? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PseudoThink ( 576121 ) on Friday April 17, 2020 @05:32PM (#59960188)
    It's one thing to say "oops, we made some random mistakes in our reporting." It's sometimes another thing to say "oops, we made some mistakes in our reporting which consistently favored our business interests and/or damaged our competitors'."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Revek ( 133289 )
      Always in their favor. One guy who lived ten miles from their switch was offered five meg and they couldn't give him 128k. He filed a complaint with the FCC but it was pointless. FCC complaint system is non binding you have to pay a fee to get a good look and they always come down on the side of the company.

    • "It's one thing to say "oops, we made some random mistakes in our reporting."

      Sounds like VW.

    • I don't see why they would stop doing it. There are no consequences.

  • At a certain level, commerce IS deceit. They all do it until they're caught. They cheat on regulations, they cheat on taxes, they lie about product information. We live in a culture of deceit, scam. the hustle. We live in a sick society.

  • AT&T Gave FCC False Broadband-Coverage Data In Parts of 20 States

    ... which version of Ajit Pai will respond and how:

    (1) Past Associate General Counsel for Verizon: Outrage
    (2) Current Chairman of the U.S. FCC: Meh

  • I'm all for shaming AT&T here. However the title should not state that AT&T gave FALSE info unless it's proven. It should report that AT&T incorrectly reported the info, regardless of whether the author thinks it was an intentional error (lie).

    • Because it's ATT. You don't have to ask. They always lie. We've given them billions to fix their shitty copper and to extend their broadband coverage and they've given it to executives and shareholders. Their entire executive management should be marched to prison at the very least, if not the guillotine.

    • You can unintentionally provide false information. It's not like the headline said "AT&T LIED." I think changing it to "AT&T incorrectly reported the info" just creates unnecessary ambiguity. That could mean that AT&T provided to correct information but followed the wrong procedures when reporting it.

      While some readers will undoubtedly misinterpret the headline to mean that AT&T lied, those are the type of readers who, well, can't read. I don't think it's possible to actually dumb down all h

  • They made $500 faking it, and have to pay a $100 penalty. Color me surprised this keeps happening.

  • Both the cable companies and cell phone companies have been under-reporting, misreporting, and outright lying about their coverage.
    Now that everyone has to work from home and can't get broadband when it clearly shows on the coverage map that it is available, the errors/lies/inaccuracies are showing.

    I would encourage everyone to file a complaint with the FCC and your legislator regarding misreported coverage maps along with an impact statement.

  • Where "software" is defined as Marketroids

  • I'm going to blame the FCC for this not AT&T. People make mistakes. There are a LOT of ISPs submitting 477 data. Vast majority do not have anywhere near the technical resources of AT&T.

    FCC is also collecting tract level data for subscriptions. They could easily cross check this with deployment data and flag likely discrepancies. It's different data at different resolutions yet you can still use it to detect probably discrepancies in the datasets... You need only care enough to try.

  • ... uses the data to track broadband-deployment ...

    Rule 2 of paper-pushing: Who reads the source data and who confirms it?

    This is obviously tick-the-boxes management. It is highly likely the FCC doesn't have a fact-checker or random auditing for these documents. Like so much of 'evil government', the goal is saying "I'm doing something", not ensuring transparency or a free-market.

  • The best Broadband I got at home was 800Kb/s. Then a year ago the Verizon people moved the line across the street at an interstate off ramp to allow building a Royal farm store farm store, when my best line rate dropped to 400 Kb/s. I moved away.
  • AT&T has been lying and committing fraud regarding broadband for 2 decades.

    They were required under the Southwestern Bell and Bell South merger to provide broadband to every address where either was the ILEC. Yet you can find hundreds of homes in AT&T's back yard of DFW suburbs where old SWB tagged boxes still don't provide any broadband.

    The corporate officers belong in prison for fraud. Is it still Carol Tacker signing the false affidavits?

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