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The Senate passed the FISA bill today, which effectively puts an end to any chance of legal repercussions for telcos who helped the government spy on citizens. Senator Obama voted for it, Senator McCain didn’t vote, and Senator Clinton, for what it’s worth, voted against it. Find out how your senator voted here. [TechCrunch]
Just before Poodleman filed a motion to seize Verizon’s property, he received a check from the company.
Starting January 31st, 2007, Skype users placing calls to domestic numbers will pay an annual fee of $30 for unlimited usage.
A customer successfully sued Verizon after they double-billed him, ruined his credit, lied about not receiving his letters, and refused to fix their mistake.
Illinois AT&T customers looking to save can now sign up for a new reduced plans.
UPDATE: A digg commenter claiming he used to work for Sprint says this is from a training video teaching employees how to behave.
Just because Verizon gave it link love, you didn’t think we would let that post, “Why Net Neutrality Is Bad,” get away with standing there unopposed, now did you? — BEN POPKEN
Man gets rid of his landline, or “snail phone,” but maintains his DSL service, saves money, lives to tell the tale.
To save money, Justin got his dad to switch from Verizon to Vonage and port his business number over. Three weeks later, after running back and forth between the two companies, calling the number results in a “sorry, your call did not go through” message. Needless to say, this had quite an adverse effect on Pops’ business.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems to be close to inking his rubber stamp for a merger between AT&T and Bellsouth, a move that would create the world’s largest telco company.
Nine days after installing a new “supplier surcharge” fee to essentially replace one government regulators dropped, Verizon DSL decided to stop levying the fee. Verizon came under heat from customers and received a letter from the FCC asking it to explain its actions. BellSouth, which also received a FCC letter, announced it would drop a similar charge.
Verizon announced in an email sent to customers that starting August 14th, Verizon Online will stop charging the FUSF (Federal Universal Service Fund) fee. This fee cost customers $1.25 or $2.83 a month, depending on their plan. FUSF was a fee “assessed” by Verizon’s DSL suppliers, but since they’ve stopped “assessing” it, Verizon will stop “recovering” it.
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit today found the NSA domestic spying program “without warrant” and violated the First and Fourth Amendments. She ordered it stopped.
In a story that would never happen in America, a Japanese man was arrested after making over 37,000 calls to telephone operators because he just enjoyed the sound of their voice.
Verizon customers in Maine asked the Public Utilities Commission to investigate whether the cellphone company handed over their phone records to the NSA. A July 28th letter from the DOJ to the PUC asked them to demure, and intimated at possible legal action.
An upcoming Business Week article socks phone companies right in the kisser for their squelching of new technologies.
• USAToday retracts report that telcos turned over customer records to NSA. Sort of. [USAToday]
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