BellSouth Holding Call Center Hostage Over Muni Fiber

from the ridiculous dept

With so many different muni-broadband battles going on, it's difficult to follow them all, but some of them are just getting ridiculous. The effort in Louisiana to offer muni-backed fiber is getting plenty of attention, mainly for the effort BellSouth is going through to block it. Once again, if they only put so much effort into providing broadband, it wouldn't be an issue at all. However, the latest, according to Broadband Reports is that BellSouth is holding a Cingular call center hostage -- saying if the muni-fiber project moves forward, they'll close down the call center, and pull 1,300 jobs out of Louisiana. This is getting petty. If there was true competition, this wouldn't be an issue. BellSouth is acting childish because it wants to have a government protected monopoly.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Bithead, 25 Feb 2005 @ 1:53pm

    Muni run broadband?

    Aparently the irony of calling for Muni run service so that a company can't have a government provided monooly has gone right by you.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 25 Feb 2005 @ 1:59pm

      Re: Muni run broadband?

      Actually, I think it's the other way around. I do see the irony... but he irony is in these "private" companies that have government provide monopolies complaining when those gov'ts want to compete.

      The gov't in this case doesn't want a monopoly. They want to compete. That's quite different.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Alan, 25 Feb 2005 @ 2:02pm

    Muni Broadband

    I don't know why SWB is worried in the first place. Since when have government agencies at any level been able to run thing efficiently?

    If there is a way to make people wait in long lines for broadband access then a municipality is certain to find it. Let's just hope they don't put the DMV in charge of photo editing :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.