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The Federal Trade Commission says AT&T’s practice of slowing down the connection speeds of unlimited-data customers who tap excessive amounts of data is a failure to deliver on the promise of “unlimited.” As a result, the FTC on Tuesday filed a federal court complaint against AT&T, charging the wireless provider with misleading customers who signed up for an unlimited-data plan only to see their connection slowed in an industry process called “throttling. “AT&T promised its customers ‘unlimited’ data, and in many instances, it has failed to deliver on that promise,” . “The issue here is simple: ‘unlimited’ means unlimited.” http://www.cnet.com/news/ftc-sues-at-t-for-limiting-speeds-on-unlimited-data-customers/
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More bad news for BCE.. The past False, misleading advertisements, bad management, Download cappings, have all lead to this. Shares of BCE tumbled $13.10, or 34 per cent, to $25.25, trimming 102 points from the S&P/TSX composite index, after accounting firm KPMG said it couldn’t certify the solvency of the company before the Dec. 11 deadline for the deal to close. A group of private equity investors led by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan agreed to pay $42.50 a share for BCE in the biggest leveraged buyout of all time. But the subsequent stock market crash, four quarters of declining profits, and a ballooning pension fund deficit have pushed the value of the company so low, it might not be able to service the mountain of debt that would replace shareholder equity after the buyout.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=2d87f9bc-b646-4762-947d-514ef7fc32d0
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BCE says Teachers’ buyout ‘unlikely to proceed’ if solvency opinion not improved Wed Nov 26, 5:48 PM MONTREAL – Bell Canada’s roller coaster ride to privatization may finally crash under the weight of its prospective massive debt after an accounting firm raised serious doubt that the world’s largest leveraged corporate buyout could succeed. I am always amazed how they had wrongfully thought they could continue to abuse their own customers and next get away with it still too.. they had wrongfully failed to use profits to upgrade their old, obsolete phone lines, equipment too.. as a result lost many customers to the cable ISP too. They now really do not deserve any Business bail out by the taxpayers or the government.
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A recent report by KPMG, acting as valuation firm, found that the amount of debt involved in the privatization of BCE (BCE), the parent of Bell Canada, would essentially render the company insolvent. As a result, the parties have called off the deal.
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Dec 11, 2008 BCE’s shares have fallen by almost half since Teachers’ made its C$42.75-a-share bid. BCE dropped 59 cents, or 2.6 percent, to C$22.43 at 12:50 p.m. in Toronto.The stock fell 34 percent on Nov. 26 on concern that KPMG was unlikely to bless the deal because of the C$34 billion in bonds and loans needed to finance the purchase. The company hired PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in an unsuccessful effort to persuade KPMG to change its opinion. . BCE lost 72,000 home-phone lines last quarter as customers switched to wireless lines or to cable companies such as Rogers. BCE’s wireless unit, which makes up a quarter of sales, grew at less than half the rate of Rogers’s mobile unit. BCE must also realistically decide whether to invest in the much need fiber-optic lines for its home customers and whether it should provide Internet- based TV service to compete with the cable firms too http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=ayi6TCn22gaQ&refer=canada
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BCE takes low road as deal fails For all BCE’s protests, the world’s largest leverage buyout just failed because lawyers for the telecom company inserted a requirement in the deal that stated BCE needed to get a favourable solvency opinion. When KPMG, a reputable accounting firm, weighed in with a final opinion that BCE didn’t meet solvency standards, the deal died. OnceBCE agreed to a buyout, they muffed the job of closing the deal.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081211.WBstreetwise20081211113644/WBStory/WBstreetwise
“A lawsuit filed against Apple and AT&T on November 4, 2008 charging misrepresentation of the 3G speed of the iPhone on AT&T’s network, has also been amended with an additional charge. The new charge claims the iPhone develops hairline cracks in the housing. Filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, Avi Koschitzki claims in the amended charge that hairline cracks in the casing of the iPhone constitute unfair practices under the New York Deceptive Practices Act. Koschitzki said the cracks appear around the camera and near the volume button on the side of the iPhone.
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Now we all can know that driving a sports car on an empty road produces a different speed from that when driving on the same road during peak traffic hours.
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Now this Mis-advertisement of the actual speeds attained also reflects the common problem we tend to have also in Canada with the false, misleading advertising, trade practices by Bell, Rogers, Videotron in regard to the speeds of their iphone and DSL, ADSL, cable internet services. These Communication, ISP firms amongst others are known to inflate, advertise substantially higher speeds than the consumer will actual get next get on the average, and the next related internet congestion cause web connectivity problems, and also reductions of the downloads speeds too..
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Now what about having now the much need real consumer protections for the citizens of Canada here as well from the greedy, lying, no good corporations?
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“The initial lawsuit claims that Apple and AT&T misrepresented the speed of the iPhone on AT&T’s 3G network. The suit claims insufficient infrastructure of the network and the fact that so many phones have been sold that it can’t handle the volume of phones trying to use it. “Due to the overloaded 3G network, it is quite common for iPhone users to only be on the 3G network for a few minutes before being bumped to the slower EDGE network despite being in geographical areas allegedly rich with 3G network coverage,” reads the lawsuit.
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The lawsuit is seeking a jury trial where they are asking for statutory, compensatory and punitive damages.”
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72 percent of businesses say they would change ISP if their Internet connection became unreliable. The independent research carried out by Shape the Future Limited on behalf of Zen Internet, the award winning ISP, surveyed over a 1,000 Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) between September and October.
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An important decisive factor for SMEs is the level of support provided by ISPs: 85 percent stated that the level of support was the most important criteria when choosing an ISP while the highest number of respondents, 80 per cent, considers UK based support to be very important. Some ISP providers have been criticised for taking telephone support overseas and cutting staffing costs.
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Just over half of those asked, 55 per cent were happy with their current supplier and were unlikely to change, 45 percent are unhappy. and 68 per cent had not changed ISP in the last year but 13 per cent are considering changing ISP at present.
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When they do, it’s mainly when there are issues with reliability, quality of service, cost or for higher speeds. It was found that 72 per cent of SMEs said they would change provider because of unreliable connection, but note only 40 per cent would change to save money.
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98 per cent of SMEs consider reliable Internet access to be critical to the needs of their business. 71 per cent of SMEs thought it was important that their ISP was business orientated, as 80 per cent use the Web to locate suppliers and 76 per cent use it for purchasing activities.
Read my many other posts about Bell here now too..
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The federal, provincial governments, the CRTC, Conservatives, Liberals unfairly maintaining archaic, monopolistic telecommunication firms, that are often bloated, cost ineffective, incompetent, over staffed, un-competitively managed as well is the main reasons consumer costs falsely keep on going up now.Bell has always had it’s spin doctors spin, lying..
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“But still “It’s getting hard to figure out the upside on the BCE story It’s very difficult to say what’s priced into the stock, but make sure you know the risks before you pile into BCE. There may be some hidden ones. And there might be some positive surprises too. Before the announcement of this deal, the shares traded between $26 and $28. The stock is trading at about $25 now. The cable companies are doing better… Then there’s the competitive landscape. It’s ferocious out there, with well-funded cable, VoIP and new wireless entrants moving in with their elbows high. There are three sources of potentially good news. The first is that BCE upgrades its land line network and makes inroads into television. That’s hard to bank on and, even if you do, it’s tough to figure out the upside. The second is the network-sharing agreement with Telus, which should yield strong returns. And finally, there’s “Belus.” Most of us find it hard to believe that the Competition Bureau would let a merger with Telus happen, or that it would let the merged entity cherry pick its divestitures… If none of these scenarios moves you, though, you’re probably better investing in the cable companies. As illustrated in this space not long ago, they are walloping the telcos because they generally have better technology. Where broadband goes, in the words of research firm Sandford Bernstein, so voice and video follow. In Canada, Rogers has mobile and Shaw is poised to move in. They’re more expensive, true, but in the long term, they seem to have more promise.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081128.RVOX28/TPStory/Business
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Vigilance, continual Vigilance is need in all areas of life it seems cause otherwise our rights are abused, overlooked, falsely censored even. Such as the ISP, Internet service providers obligations to their customers, contractual agreements, On top of that there is no question that many major Internet corporations profit have also been built on the back of free labor, the free contributors. Which they tend to no longer appreciated and restrict falsely access to many of these sites now instead. Ever discover that while the main search engines will readily give you a list of sites, that you may next have difficulties accessing many of these sites next ands why is that? The access and the speed aren’t too bad but still only during certain, limited portions of day or night. Such internet traffic management is really really unacceptable.
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For if they were to invest in newer, better infrastructure to raise capacity, they would even get more customers. It’s much, much cheaper to throttle torrent traffic or do nothing than it is to expand the overused, obsolete infrastructure. If even Microsoft, corporations, companies & governments are distributing more and more content through the internet then all of the ISPs have to keep up to date and increase their capacity in response. Other countries are embracing this, and have brighter economic futures & control, profitability, consumer satisfactions as well.
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Time for just more of our complaining, talking over and over again is done, rather real actions is required now even by the governments to protect the consumers.
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I too have discovered often that while I personally do also have many blogs, internet sites, next my own accessibility to these sites is it seems unnecessary restricted, difficult, and one of the main valid explanations as many of us already do know is the false periodic unacceptable capping, throttling, access restrictions, by the ISP, internet Service Suppliers themselves. I too now do have no sympathy for almost any of ISPs. They firstly do still to often lie lie to get customers and next when they get them they cannot honor, keep their original promises, promised speeds and capacities It’s one thing to gouge us all with continual increase rates but not to keep also same promised original service. No, no, no. ISPs are not only raising their rates but still also decreasing their services and the quality of it as well..
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ONE THING YOU CAN COUNT ON IN DEALING WITH BELL IS HOW THEY WILL DIVERT, MISLEAD THE TRUTH, AS TO WHAT THEY DO, WHO THEY ARE, HOW CAPABLE THEY ARE NOW TO SUPPLY YOUR SERVICES. I KNOW I HAVE DEALT WITH THEM FOR YEARS AND POSTED HUNDREDS OF EMAIL COMPLAINTS TO THEM, ON THE NET NOW TOO. BECAUSE BELL HAD THEY STATED THAT THEY ARE THE LARGEST, BIGGEST IN CANADA DOES NOT MEAN AT ALL THAT THEY ARE THE BEST, OR ADEQUATE EVEN. BELL AND IT’S EMPLOYEES, RESOURCES FOR CERTAINTY HAVE NOT BEEN PROPERLY MANAGED, BELL HAS NOT SPENT THE MUCH NEED CAPITAL ON UPGRADES TO STAY COMPETITIVE IN THE COMPUTER WORLD TOO. SO CLEARLY THEY ARE ALWAYS SEEM TO BE LOOKING AT SCHEMES, ALTERNATIVES TO IMPROVE THEIR PROFITABILITY, AND THEY DO NOT ALWAYS WORK BEST FOR THEM TOO. I WOULD FIRST LOOK AT ALTERNATIVES BEFORE I WOULD LOOK TO DEALING WITH BELL.
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do see also
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