Telecom companies should not get tax breaks to build out broadban...
Telecom companies should not get tax breaks to build out broadband networks, consumer groups said Thursday. While more broadband is a priority, “we are adamantly opposed to just doling out taxpayers’ money to telecom companies, given their record of…
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hitting consumers with inflated prices and slower Internet speeds compared to other industrialized countries,” said Consumers Union Vice President Gene Kimmelman. Money should go to state and local governments to provide broadband service to underserved areas, Kimmelman said. Expanding financial support for municipal-sponsored Internet services would be a better help to consumers, he said. “Our analysis shows that low income consumers account for three-quarters of all households that do not have broadband,” said Mark Cooper, CFA director of research. “We need to use universal service funds to support broadband to increase the adoption among these households.” Telecom firms received “billions of dollars in tax subsidies in the 1990s on the promise that they would fully upgrade their networks for Internet services,” Cooper said. “But they failed to deliver.”