10,000 wireless service complaints to the FCC in a year

We hear all the time from
wireless carriers how great the
wireless coverage is in the
U.S. and how we have the best
LTE network in the world. But
there are many gaps in
coverage, creating more of a
patchwork of networks where
some rural and more
populated areas don't get 3G
or better service for voice or
data, or where service is spotty
at 2G or below. Sometimes,
wireless voice or data are even
nonexistent where people live
and work.
Granted, the overwhelming
majority of people in the U.S.
have access to good wireless
service, but some estimates
from the Federal
Communications Commission
have noted that 19 million
Americans don't have access
to good fixed broadband--
which could be helped with
wireless technologies.
The reasons for those wireless
service problems were
explained in an article in
Computerworld on April 3 and
examples of readers without
good wireless service were
offered in a Ramblin' Hamblen
blog on April 4.
Some readers with wireless
service problems have asked
me how they could complain
effectively about missing
wireless service, aside from
going to a carrier near their
homes or workplaces.
Rather than rely on anecdotes
of problems with wireless
service, it also makes sense to
try to quantify the problems in
a reliable way. It turns out
that the FCC collects written
complaints on a Form 2000B,
which can be filed online or by
mail. The form requires the
person complaining to provide
his or her name, phone
number and other information.
It's fair to say that a
complainer has to be pretty
concerned to fill out the form
and send it off.
In response to a written email
request from Computerworld,
the FCC summarized a year's
worth of published data on the
Form 2000B complaints. What
the FCC didn't provide was
any interpretation of how the
complaints were resolved, or
not resolved
Over the 12 months ending
Sept. 30, 2012, there were
10,132 complaints to the
Federal Communications
Commission regarding poor
wireless service. That's the
most recent data available.
In addition, there were 10,856
complaints over wireless
billing and rates for the same
period, from fourth quarter
2011 through third quarter
2012, the FCC said.
The data was provided to
Computerworld in response to
our request, and summarizes
published quarterly complaint
reports.
The complaints were reviewed
and processed by FCC staff
"through designated channels
at the FCC," according to Mike
Snyder, a media relations
liaison at the FCC.
Presumably the FCC
commissioners have read
summaries of the complaint
reports and discussed them,
but it isn't clear how any of
the complaints are dealt with,
either by private wireless
carriers or the FCC. "We can
make no further comment on
the complaints at this time,"
Snyder said in an email.
What's missing is whether
anybody on the staff at the
FCC thinks the 10,000
complaints are too many or
too few or specious or filled
with comments from cranks
that the FCC has to tolerate.
The FCC's commissioners
couldn't be reached for
immediate comment, but they
almost never provide
comments on this kind of
request. Outgoing FCC
Chairman Julius Genachowski
has published a long list of
his accomplishments at the
FCC over the past four years,
but refused to comment about
the disposition of the wireless
service complaints.
To be fair, the FCC does have
an exceeding output of
information on many matters.
Individual commissioners will
occasionally post written
comments on opinions, but
they are more reluctant to
answer specific questions from
reporters and try to let their
comments during their quasi-
judicial proceedings stand
without much elaboration.
Certainly over recent years,
federal attorneys have taken
legal actions against carriers
on billing, pricing and service
matters and probably some of
those arose from Form 2000B
complaints. There are a
number of FCC initiatives to
expand wireless voice and
data services in underserved
areas, as well.
However, what the FCC is
missing and what seems
entirely possible for the FCC to
do is to inform the public on a
raw data basis of the general
dispositions of the complaints
filed by the public. Wouldn't it
be possible to just say that in
a single year that X percent of
10,000 complaints were still
under review? Or that Y
percent had resulted in a
lawsuit or administrative
action?
It would be harder to say that
a complaint of poor service
had resulted in Z number of
new cell towers and wireless
services in a given area, but
isn't that the kind of
information that provides
value? At Computerworld, we
are constantly writing about
how brilliant young software
designers are turning raw data
into intelligence. The data,
well, it's just electrons, if you
think about it. And even the
data that the FCC provided
seems suspicious on its face:
How can there be an almost
equal number of service
complaints and billing
complaints? And how come
both numbers are about
10,000? It's all too pat for me
to believe.
The FCC is beholden to
Congress and federal
administrative branches, but
unfortunately for the public
(except for a few really
informed civic activists) the
FCC doesn't seem to do much
more than to offer a huge
amount of data that isn't
collated into useful
information.
I've covered federal agencies
for 30 years and the FCC's
bureaucracy is one of the most
highly expert and intelligent,
but also the most frustrating
to understand and penetrate.
I'm reminded of this every
single time I try to request
data and information or find it
on the FCC's Web site.