from the about-time dept
Well, it only took plenty of
publicity and a
lawsuit, but FreeConference.com is saying that
Cingular and Qwest have backed down, and have started allowing calls to go through to their service again after being blocked for nearly a month. Apparently, a lot of customers complained (no surprise there) and the companies felt it was best to stop the blocks. Of course, the lawsuit probably had something to do with it as well -- along with the fact that the FCC has finally
realized that maybe it should be finding out what's going on. Once again, though, it's not as if FreeConference.com and its Iowa telco partners come out of this looking good. They're basically scamming a set of ridiculous regulations that allow them to
overcharge telcos. Unfortunately, the small local Iowa telcos involved don't realize that the more they complain about this, the more they're only asking for trouble. We'd already noted that they were whining a little too loudly about how their big scam was
protecting the little guy. Today, they're back at it, spamming us with press releases about how, even though the services are working again, the "little guy" is
still feeling the pain. The more these small telcos complain, the more attention they're going to get -- and sooner or later regulators are going to realize that they're basically scamming a badly written law. So, whether or not it's helping the little guy, don't expect it to last very long.
