Paul Kapustka's Blog
« Meg Whitman to eBay members: Back net neutrality! | Main | Thursday, June 1 »
June 01, 2006
In Emergencies, Telecoms say 'Me First'
Reading today's story by C/Net's Anne Broache about telecom companies' desires to have government aid in emergenices, wondering why Anne didn't include the telcos' hypocritical responses to an effort to try to get them to focus on helping the people who really need emergency aid -- their customers.
Don't get me wrong -- if the telcos need National Guard protection to get to their flooded COs, I'm all for it. But the question bears asking -- if they implemented VoIP or other new technologies to ensure some kind of continuous communication for their customers, those same customers most likely wouldn't be angrily storming BellSouth offices with frustration, busy signals and unanswered questions.
How much would such a plan cost? A penny per customer, which is apparently too much for BellSouth to part with.
Just a thought! But the cynical view says that BellSouth/AT&T will just make more campaign contributions and then soak up police protection. All in customers' best interests, of course.
Posted by paul at June 1, 2006 08:54 AM