Former FCC Chair Opposed to “Regulatory Capitalism” Now AT&T Exec; Other Reasons to Break Up the Telecom

By B.N. Frank

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to protect Americans from the telecom industry. Instead they have been catering to the industry for decades (see 1, 2). This has led to lawsuits being filed against the agency for NOT protecting the public from unsafe levels of cell phone and WiFi radiation as well as unwanted and unsafe 5G installation on Earth (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and in space.

Long-time telecom experts, The Irregulators, also filed a lawsuit against the FCC which exposed that Americans have already paid to have safer access to high-speed internet via fiber optics (see also 1, 2, 3, 4). This means the FCC should STOP giving more tax payer dollars to telecom companies to install unsafe technology in order to “bridge the digital divide” (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Unfortunately, the corrupt and “captured” agency has other plans.

Irregulator Bruce Kushnick has written many articles that detail ongoing FCC/Big Telecom shenanigans. Most recently, he published a 3-part series about why the Department of Justice and State Attorneys General need to finally step in (see 1, 2, 3). Thanks to Bruce for another enlightening article about telecom corruption being assisted by former FCC personnel.

Break Up AT&T: Gluttony, Overcharging, & “Regulatory Capitalism”.

By Bruce Kushnick

How did a Former FCC Chairman and Champion of Competition become the New Captured AT&T Independent Chairman?

Is $250 million in compensation for just 4 AT&T executives, for just 3 years, gluttony, especially when you consider that AT&T is socking it to their customers and failed to upgrade the state wired telecommunications utilities under their control?

In fact, CNBC reports that there was a bit of a revolt at the AT&T shareholders’ meeting, April 30th, 2021

“AT&T shareholders on Friday voted against a measure to approve executive compensation, according to preliminary voting results from the company’s annual meeting… AT&T did not give a number for the opposing votes, but said preliminary results showed 49% were cast in favor of approving executive compensation.”

The chart above states that in the 2020 annual report AT&T’s Executive Chairman made $30 million dollars annually, while the new CEO of AT&T WarnerMedia received a massive first year paycheck of $52 million dollars for 2020. This appears to be one of the reasons for the shareholders’ revolt.

But there are other buckets of money, (which are included in the figures above), that need to be mentioned. These are the payments to 4 top executives for use of the corporate jet, estate planning, health insurance and club membership. Is health insurance really $57,000 annually or is $30, 000 for private use of the corporate jet reasonable?

We also checked Verizon’s executives. Though overall lower in the totals, is $79,000 for the personal use of the corporate jet, or the $660,0078 in total for additional benefits in one year for CEO Mr. Vestberg reasonable? Some of the benefits to the executives include:

“These other benefits consist of: (i) financial planning services in the amount of $26,150 for CEO Mr. Vestberg, $13,000 for Mr. Ellis, $17,068 for Mr. Dunne, $11,000 for Ms. Erwin and $4,973 for Mr. Gowrappan; and (ii) home security services of $9,155 for Mr. Vestberg and $17,156 for Mr. Gowrappan. The aggregate incremental cost of the financial planning benefit and home security services is equal to the amount the Company paid to the third-party provider for the services provided.”

There Are Multiple Problems with All of these Executive Rewards…

Read full article at Medium

Activist Post reports regularly about the FCC, Big Telecom, and unsafe technology. For more information visit our archives and the following websites.