The United States Telephone Association (USTA), the phone companies trade association, has petitioned the FCC (WC Docket No. 12-61) to essentially remove all requirements to supply information about AT&T, Verizon and the other phone companies’ business activities. This is known as “forbearance,” where the FCC has the authority enforce the law but chooses not to do so.

This is the latest effort in an ongoing campaign to allow the telecoms to hide what they are doing by no longer disclosing basic financial information between and among the companies’ subsidiaries.

This means that your right to known will be limited. You won’t know what the telcos are doing behind your back. Worse, this stops advocates or the government from knowing what these companies are doing.

First, we request the FCC stop the USTA petition and restore all previous requirements that have already been removed. Second, we demand an investigation into the current business practices of AT&T and Verizon.

This petition is sponsored by TeleTruth, a customer telecommunications advocacy group, and New Networks Institute, a market research firm.

We have filed in opposition of the USTA petition. The USTA want to hide the business practices of Verizon, AT&T and other telcos, including not paying billions in taxes, their failure to provide fast broadband to half the nation and overcharging customers. We need more data, not less. We need your help. For more information, see:
http://www.newnetworks.com/Verizonshellgame2012.pdf