Verizon's Schizophrenia Concerning Municipal Networking Initiatives:

In February, the California Public Utility Commission held a meeting where a Verizon executive spoke to the question of why it was fighting against Municipal Broadband initiatives. He rails against these projects as a waste of tax payer money, unfair to tax paying corporations, etc. And yet states that, "We aren't going to stand in the way." I've got a clip of the question and his answer here.

And yet, Verizon has just released this piece of misinformation, which is full of factual errors, documenting the supposed "failures" of municipal broadband projects. Clearly, Verizon is hoping that reporters will just run their propaganda instead of checking in with folks who might give a more factually correct view on things.

Meanwhile, Verizon has just released anti-muni prime-time TV advertizements. As reader Deborah Forest Hart relates:

I gather they are mounting a "public relations" campaign in an attempt to coach the unlettered and unsuspecting/uninvolved about the hazards of "amateur" networks, before anyone becomes interested in alternatives. Fear-mongering has worked quite well lately in other arenas to head off meaningful discourse, so why not piggy-back on that nerve?. . .

Clearly, "alternative" (networking) was being linked with "frustration."

I suppose this is Verizon's idea of "not standing in the way."