I recently wrote this blog entry: SBC VoIP Tariff Scare
Well someone posted a comment to my blog that if true is very very interesting. It would mark the first time that I have heard of that a U.S. company has deliberately discriminated against someone using a competing VoIP service. The accuracy/legitimacy of blog comments is certainly questionable, but for this person to spend the time typing this all up means he either has a lot of time on his hands or maybe it's true after all. I'll contact my sources at Packet8 to see if they have heard from this guy as he claimed to have told Packet8 about this issue with SBC.
here's the comment pasted here:
I'm a 32 year old white male. SBC banned my father from calling me, because I have Packet8 service! They've already "Tariffed" my family. SBC sent my dad a threatening letter stating that they will terminate his phone service if he didn't stop calling my phone because I use a VOIP service. He doesn't have DSL, but I do (SBC DSL in fact!) We both live in California. We both pay Federal taxes on our phones, and now we've been denied our freedom of speech to use our phones to call each other and say hi! I called Packet8 and they said they have never heard of this type of action and are interested. It also feels like I've been discriminated against simply because I have VOIP. I suppose I'm "not worthy" to talk to SBC customers like other Americans, and I should be shunned and cut off from society? What's ironic is that 2 months ago, SBC sabatoged our phone line at my house when I told them I was thinking of switching over to VOIP. Suddenly both our internet and phones were dead. We called SBC and they said a person they called "Stephanie" cancelled our phone service for us. It took us 2 months to get it back, and then the day is was supposed to be re-activated, they said there was no record of our order. This happened 2 times before our phone finally came on, and then 3 times before our internet finally came back on! If this isn't corporate bullying I don't know what is.
I supposed this is off the Tarrif issue but now I'm getting a fuller picture of what SBC is up to.
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I dunno about this. Why would SBC screw this one residential customer? And does it really make sense for them to have a master plan to beat the competition by not letting them receive calls? That will never work in the real world until and unless they have an actual monopoly. It is a tremendous disincentive to use SBC if you can't call anyone not on SBC. I'm not suggesting this guy hasn't been screwed, just that it seems more likely to be local incompetence and indifference than some grand strategy to beat back the competition.