Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

FTC

FTC Calls Out Data Brokers

November 3, 2015

The FTC did a report on 9 data brokers. Scary.

"Data Brokers Collect and Store Billions of Data Elements Covering Nearly Every U.S. Consumer: Data brokers collect and store a vast amount of data on almost every U.S.

RUS, FCC, BIP, USF and Other Acronyms

August 3, 2015

The Big Boy telecom advocacy groups and pundits are spinning that the FCC is overstepping its bounds. Headline from Forbes and their law + technology columnist: FCC's First Net Neutrality Fine Heralds The Big Internet Chill. This was followed up by headlines about FCC Chair Wheeler over-stepping, arm-twisting and misusing his office.

AT&T gets a $100M fine for selling unlimited accounts that were impaired for big users.

One Way to Privately Differentiate

June 29, 2015

The FCC recently ruled that phone companies CAN block robocalls - all types - if a customer requests it.

Did you know that there was an FTC Robocall Challenge in 2013. (Thanks to M. Leblanc for filling me in.) Nomorobo came out fo that challenge.

The RBOCs: Copper, Spectrum, Regulation and Sales

February 3, 2015

We have just 2 RBOCs - regional Bell companies left - AT&T and Verizon. You might consider CenturyLink an RBOC (because of US West), but since they don't have the same business model as the other 2, I just mean the two Bell-head companies with their Jekyll cellular side.

Both have been running from wireline for a while -- since maybe 2006. I think they wanted forbearance to get rid of unions and that copper plant.

Has Verizon Stopped Repairing Copper?

February 17, 2012

Over and over, I am hearing that Verizon has given up on copper. From repair issues to DSL to stripping copper out when FiOS is installed, the story seems to point to VZ looking to forget its copper plant.

in a discussion on LinkedIn about SLA's, one agent had this to say, "The absolute WORST cases I have seen have all been in the northeast where Verizon's copper is concerned. Verizon seems to have made the decision to put all efforts and funds behind their fiber build out (a good thing) but have completely sacrificed the quality behind their copper services such as T1.

The Leaked AT&T Document

August 26, 2011

I have been sitting on this story for a while because I wanted to do a long piece about it. I'm just not going to get around to that.

The rumored breakup fee for the ATT-T-Mobile merger is like $6B. At that rate, Ma Bell will do anything to have this merger go through.

A Message for Dan Hesse

April 26, 2011

The merger of AT&T and T-Mobile will likely have extreme anti-competitive effects on the mobile industry. Certainly, the DOJ and the two F-Agencies (FTC and FCC) need to take note that mobile is churning the service economy of America right now and this merger could derail that. That being said, I have this to say to the CEO of Sprint, Dan Hesse:

You have lawyers and lobbyists and SVP's. Let them carry this fight for you.

Bandwidth Caps

November 17, 2008

Bandwidth caps have more to do with preserving TV revenues than network management business. Yes, there are issues of last mile and node congestion for both telco and cableco networks. It is also a function of the band-aid approach that these companies take. instead of one huge upgrade (like say Verizon with FiOS), there have been baby step fixes.

It's also about preserving revenue.

Online Music

October 1, 2008

The news this week in online music is that Best Buy is buying Napster and now has anti-trust approval from the FTC to do so, according Yahoo news.

Also, Yahoo News  reports that "After approval by the U.S. House and now a nod from the Senate, the Webcaster Settlement Bill is headed to President George W. Bush's desk for his signature. The bipartisan bill will allow copyright owners and artists, on behalf of SoundExchange, to negotiate with Internet radio services.

FTC Red Flag Rules

September 26, 2008

As businesses increasingly rely on technology to store and maintain data, including customer records, the risk of identity theft also is increasing. The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"), together with federal banking regulatory agencies and the National Credit Union Administration, has adopted new regulations intended to combat identity theft. Known as the Red Flag Rules, these new regulations require financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement a written identity theft prevention program to identify and combat identity theft in connection with new and existing customer accounts.

If you are an operator that provides service in advance of payment, then your company is a "creditor" because your company regularly extends, renews or continues credit or defers payment for goods or services.

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