Rebtel Blog

Verizon’s Smoke At The FCC Is So Thick You Can Cut It With A Knife

I want to go on the record. Rebtel does not promote the use of alcohol, tobacco products, guns, other weapons, or illegal drugs. Nor does Rebtel advocate or have anything to do whatsoever with intense profanity or violence, graphic depiction of sexual activity, nudity, or hate speech.

We are not SPAMers or purveyors of fraudulent materials or activities that are restricted by law to those over 18, such as gambling or lotteries.

Nevertheless, if you take the time to wade through the nearly 200 collective pages of legal mumbo jumbo recently filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel and CTIA – The Wireless Association, you might actually come away thinking we are. Or could be.

In fact, the only thing we do at Rebtel is give consumers an alternative way to make an international call from their mobile phone, for which we charge them a few pennies per minute instead of mobile operators’ ridiculous rip-off rates.

As you might guess, the carriers are not wild about our service – even though it’s super simple and very low cost to implement. Just ask our friends at Skype, Jajah and Jaxter which are now blatantly copying Rebtel’s invention.

That, however, is an entirely separate kettle of fish.

The issue at hand before the FCC is very straightforward. And we totally agree with AT&T, which wrote in its filing that it is important for the FCC to be clear as to what this proceeding is about, and more importantly, what it is not about.

AT&T wrote in its filing: “This proceeding is not about the ability of wireless customers to exchange [text] messages with other wireless customers. What is at issue is whether wireless carriers can be forced to enter into joint marketing arrangements with content providers through the activation of short code campaigns.”

But for some reason they got it backward. The issue concerning Rebtel is all about the ability of wireless customers to exchange text messages with other wireless customers, and has absolutely nothing to do with marketing using short code campaigns.

As I’ve discussed here in the past, short codes, among other uses are how text messages (SMS) get sent from a company’s web site to an individual’s phone in the U.S.

What’s happening is the carriers’ customers want to send themselves a text message from the Rebtel web site and they want to receive text messages that their friends, family and work colleagues send to them from the Rebtel web site.

But Verizon and Alltel won’t approve a Rebtel short code campaign that would allow those messages through. And while AT&T has approved Rebtel’s campaign, it transmits the messages as flash SMS so they disappear if you don’t immediately save them when they arrive.

All these games because the carriers don’t like what’s in the messages: local phone numbers where you live that connect you to friends abroad.

Verizon wrote in its filing that it does not block text messages, “except those addressed to its subscribers that are captured by its spam filters, or that are affirmatively selected for blocking by its subscribers.”

But there is no mass mailing of text messages going out from Rebtel that might be trapped by a SPAM filter. Instead every single messages is 1:1 sending initiated by the Verizon or AT&T or Alltel or whatever customer to either themselves or from a friend.

What the carriers are doing is really no different than if Verizon started listening into customers’ voice calls and disconnecting the calls if someone talks about a better deal over at AT&T.

So, let’s cut through the baloney. This is about business.

We created Rebtel with a very simple vision: Take the phony out of telephony.

Our mission: Create a genuinely good, honest, trustworthy global communications service that saves people money.

And we set out in 2006 to build a company on just three values: Always take the customers’ side, whatever you do must be clear and simple, and have no fear – do the right thing.

That approach has paid off. Rebtel blew past 1 million regular customers months ago and we’re now tripling in size every three months in terms of new customers, revenue and minutes carried.

In contrast, I think Verizon’s approach of trapping customers into multi-year contracts and then milking them for every penny possible is beautifully captured in its request for the FCC to dismiss the petition filed by Public Knowledge, Free Press and other leading consumer advocacy groups.

Verizon argues that the complaints in the petition refer to “isolated instances” that don’t warrant government involvement. “If consumers want to join a short code campaign that Verizon Wireless has not enabled, they may switch to a provider willing to enable that campaign.”

Okay, Verizon – which providers do you suggest? And, by the way, will you wave the penalty fee on my contract when I do?

Posted in AT&T, Alltel, CTIA – The Wireless Association, Common Short Code Administration, Flash SMS, Free Press, Jajah, Jaxter, Public Knowledge, SMS, SPAM, Sprint, Verizon, blog, federal communications commission, skype, t-mobile, text message, voip | No Comments »

An open letter to U.S. Reps. Edward J. Markey and Cliff Stearns

Dear Representatives Markey and Stearns:

As leaders of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, we ask that you consider taking up an important telecom issue that has real impact on lower-income residents of the U.S. and the future of competition in mobile voice communications.

I’m referring to the short code issue now before the Federal Communications Commission in the form of a petition for declaratory ruling that refusing to provision a short code to a customer is unjust and unreasonable discrimination, and violates the law.

This issue is important because short codes are what make it possible in the U.S. for companies to send SMS – text messages – to individuals.

Today, mobile operators still have the ability to act as Big Brother gatekeepers even after a company has received a dedicated or shared short code from the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA), and submitted a specification of traffic flow and commands to each carrier for approval of the process of OPT-IN and OPT-OUT to make sure the recipients really do wish to receive the SMS.

In other words if Verizon, AT&T, Alltel or T-Mobile don’t like what’s in certain SMS, they have the ability to block the message from going through to the consumer.

The FCC petition filed in December by public interest groups Public Knowledge, Free Press and Mobile Commons, cited Verizon’s rejection of NARAL Pro-Choice America’s text messages to its supporters as a prime example of carriers interference with political speech.

Violating American’s sacred First Amendment rights is downright dumb. And Verizon quickly stopped blocking NARAL’s SMS as soon as The New York Times shed some light on what Verizon was up to.

But what may be a better case for why regulation is needed is the U.S. carriers’ refusal to accept SMS from Rebtel, which is also cited in the petition as an example of how Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Alltel have taken advantage of a perceived regulatory hole to discriminate against competitors.

For example, Verizon – the self-proclaimed “most profitable wireless company in the U.S.” –prevents its customers from sending SMS to themselves from the Rebtel web site because they contain local U.S. phone numbers Verizon customers can use to call friends and family abroad for just pennies per minute instead of the rip-off rates charged by Verizon. Many of these rates escalate beyond $1 per minute, with profit margins that rival the oil companies.

At a hearing last Monday on network neutrality and network management, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said, “The time has come for a specific enforceable principle of nondiscrimination.”

We think Mr. Martin is right and should now apply that same position to the short code issue, and stop the arbitrary blocking of consumer access to certain services.

We also think it’s the FCC’s job to figure out where you draw the line between unreasonable discrimination and reasonable, fair business practices.

And, if we really live in a country of free enterprise, we think it’s high time to let the customer – the people – decide what information they choose to receive by SMS, and not have it dictated by the big mobile operators.

We hope you agree with us on this issue and closely monitor the FCC proceeding. And would the FCC believe that it lacks authority to correct these wrongs, we encourage you to introduce legislation that makes clear that the FCC should prevent wireless carriers from unreasonably discriminating against businesses using short codes to interact with their customers.

Sincerely,

Rebtel (the people’s global communication company)

Posted in AT&T, Alltel, Common Short Code Administration, Free Press, House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Intern, Kevin J. Martin, Mobile Commons, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Net Neutrality, Public Knowledge, Rep. Cliff Stearns, Rep. Edward J. Markey, SMS, Verizon, blog, calls, cheap, federal communications commission, mobile, mvoip, t-mobile, telephony, text message | 1 Comment »

Verizon: Time to walk the walk

Skeptical?  You bet!  But we’re in good company.

Verizon is talking openness out of one side of its mouth while the other side is shutting down Rebtel’s application for a harmless short code campaign that would allow customers to set up new local numbers for global contacts with one quick SMS. 

Verizon has been putting on the PR push to position itself as all open and friendly just in time for the January auction of the “C-Block” of 700MHz radio spectrum.   

It’s a good story. In a recent BusinessWeek interview, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam announced that as part of Verizon’s new “any app, any device” future, his company would support Android, Google’s open mobile operating system.  He goes on to say that this change is far from a sudden course correction — that he’s been trying to figure out how to make Verizon open for a year.  Yet it was only just a couple of months ago that Rebtel’s application for a short code campaign was summarily dismissed.

Short codes are those five-digit numbers that connect you to someone or something instead of dialing an entire phone number.  You may have used a short code to vote for your favorite American Idol, for example.  Rebtel wants these short codes to give customers a fast and easy way to create new local numbers for calling abroad instead of having to first dial a Rebtel operator or use the Rebtel web site.  

But to get short codes you have to apply to each carrier for a campaign, which Rebtel did through its U.S. service provider. 

Sprint said, yes.  AT&T said it might approve our campaign, but only with a bunch of changes, which we’re working on.  And Verizon, Alltel and T-Mobil all said, no. 

According to Adam Liptalk’s story in the New York Times, experts say private companies like Verizon probably have the legal right to decide which messages to carry — that the laws forbidding carriers from interfering with voice transmissions on ordinary phone lines do not apply to text messages. 

Rebtel, however, believes this is a Net Neutrality issue – whether carriers or Internet service providers should have a voice in the content they deliver to customers. And, in our opinion, the Verizon rejection of Rebtel’s short code campaign is nothing short of an anti-competitive abuse of power, much like their rejection of Nara Pro-Choice America’s short code campaign was interference with political speech and activism. 

Just like with Nara, we want Verizon to reverse its decision on Rebtel.  Why can everyone from Burger King to Barak Obama use short codes but not Rebtel customers?

And, given his opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, I would think Walt Mossberg should be a loud supporter of this cause. 

Regardless, talking the talk is all well and good, but if Verizon really believes in openness we think it’s high time it walks the walk, too.  

Posted in Alltel, Android, Net Neutrality, Sprint, Verizon, Walt Mossberg, blog, rebtel, t-mobile, telecom cartels, telephony, voip | No Comments »