Letter to Congress

Letter sent to Senators Boxer and Feinstein and my representative, Barbara Lee:

I am writing you today about the AT&T's abusive behavior, allowed because they are a (relatively) unregulated monopoly.

Frankly, I feel like I must be living in a 3rd world country.

I own a small business here in Berkeley. Internet connectivity is as important to a business today as a telephone was in the past. I am trying to get a T-1 installed. For a variety of reasons I want a 3rd party vendor to provide this service. However the ONLY company that can provide the physical infrastructure is AT&T - they have a monopoly on "the last mile" -- connectivity directly into my office.

So my provider called them to schedule an installation time -- the earliest date they would give us was in 30 days! Since we HAVE NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE, we scheduled this delivery (April 22nd).

Yesterday (the 18th) their technician called to install the service. How nice, 4 days early (only a 26 DAY WAIT for this essential service).

Because I was unavailable yesterday, I called back this morning and was told by the technician that BECAUSE I MISSED THE CALL, I MUST NOW RESCHEDULE!!

If this were NOT a monopoly, no business would survive treating its customers in this way. It is ESSENTIAL that you and our other elected officials take whatever monopoly power you can away from AT&T and effectively regulate whatever monopoly power that remains.

Sincerely,

Edward Shelton
Business Owner and VOTER