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Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Auditors observed as well that the city, a prime user of BT services, was charged “below market rates” and “below BT’s cost of service. The low rates charged by BT ... to the city could be viewed as a form of cross-subsidization,” which, the audit notes, is a violation of a provision of BT’s state license. The building of the system in general, auditors said, was marked by a “lack of timely and accurate accounting information.”While the quote does come from the Larkin report, it offers no foundation for the claim and later hedges against it (two paragraphs later -- all from page 26):
The fact that BT is providing services to various City departments at below- market rates that may be below BT’s cost of service, which could be viewed as a form of cross-subsidization, is a problem.After stating without referencing any evidence that BT is providing services to Departments below the cost of provisioning, the conclusion two paragraphs below states BT may be providing services to departments at prices below BT's cost of service ... which could be viewed as a form of cross-subsidization. This is not credible (unless you are a local reporter trying to make the City look bad). Sorting it out... BT provides broadband to all the City Departments. BT says that it charges them the full cost of doing so (according to their statements as well as comments to me over the years). This rate is below prices charged by a private sector provider -- no one disputes that. So we have two potential charges that are lumped together.