BART And Caltrain Officials Decry Proposed Cuts To Federal Transportation Funding

Here are the facts. The President of the United States is visiting the Bay Area for two days, his visit is about to begin, and there is no question that during his visit at some point, someone is going to be talking to him about federal funding and BART, which was actually withheld not long after BART suspended cellular service on August 11, 2011. You may speculate if there are political considerations on the federal funding if you wish, but I would bet that there are some. BART federal funding should continue to be withheld until BART agrees, without conditions, that it will not seek to assert any authority to throttle, or alternatively to "suspend," (cut) cellular service. BART does not possess this authority. With respect to the cellular systems used and deployed by BART to the public, and the kinds of "modifications" for service that BART thinks that it may have a right or privelege to perform independently, these are affairs that even if brought to a court, must be referred to the FCC (and possibly to the CPUC as well) for review and action. Neither BART nor any other agency, nor city or other organization, public or private, has the right or privelege to act with discretion to shut down a network, as this is a violation of the Communications Act of 1934 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as primary laws of consideration, amongst others, not to mention that it flies in the face of well-established U.S. Supreme Court case law on the issue. Go to http://globalrevolutionary.blogspot.com/ and scroll down to find more about the public interest FCC petitions and arguments against the #BART actions that suspended cell service on August 11, 2011.