https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/atts-and-verizons-lead-cables-us-rep-demands-telcos-clean-up-their-mess/
"Corporate irresponsibility": Telcos accused of failing to act on health risks.
The politicians are clutching their pearls in shock and anger. Those motherfuckers have enabled corporations to behave badly in the first place. Fucking hypocrites.
If it’s a problem, then I’ll blame them for letting them build them in the first place, but I won’t blame the current ones for forcing it to be fixed. I hope they succeed.
Back in the 1920s nobody cared about lead, and few even knew they should at all.
The real question is why they haven't replaced the lines by the 1960s (and again in 2000, and getting close to the next one...).
They’re trying now. If they did nothing then you wouldn’t say anything. But now that they actually are trying to, you’re slamming them for it. That’s silly.
You didn't see my private conversations in 1996, so you have to take my word for it that I was slaming the phone companies that still had lead lines then.
The use of lead alloys in telecom cables started in the 1880s and the industry began to phase out placement of new lead-sheathed cables in the 1950s after developing a new type of sheathing," the trade group's website said. "Some of these cables still provide customer voice and data services, including connecting 911 service, fire alarms, and other central monitoring stations."
Sounds about right. So they did stop using it when the negative effects of lead started being more well-known. You know what happens when they try to remove that cable in favor of fiber? You get people who whine that the telcos are getting rid of landline copper connections.
Didn't the telecoms receive billions of dollars of public money to build and then own that infrastructure?
You mean throwing taxpayer funds at these companies in the form of subsidies without checks and balances didn't work? What the hell could have gone wrong? /s
Ugh, yeah. Sad that this is actually a thing.
There was a post going around the other day about "out of the box thinking". The punchline was something like "paying a living wage" being in the box. Sadly a lot of stuff that passes for innovation for corporate types adheres to that, at the moment.
This has already happened they got billions to roll out fiber and literally ran away with the money so disgusting
Fuck em. We've given both corps enough public money over the years. If they can't prioritize maintenence than they should go under.