Ten Worst Telco Moments of 2007
HuffPo | Timothy Karr | Ten Worst Telco Moments of 2007
2. Telcos Spy on Millions of Americans - For several years now, the nation's largest telecommunications companies have been spying on their own customers without a warrant.
3. Comcast is Busted for Blocking BitTorrent - In October, an Associated Press investigation revealed that Comcast - technically a cableco - was secretly blocking peer-to-peer file sharing programs like BitTorrent and Gnutella.
4. AT&T and Verizon Censor Free Speech - In September, Verizon Wireless blocked NARAL Pro-Choice America's efforts to send mobile text messages to its members. ... A month earlier, during the live Lollapalooza webcast of a Pearl Jam concert, AT&T muted lead singer Eddie Vedder just as he launched into a lyric criticizing President Bush.
5. Caught Red-Handed, Telcos Change Their Tune - For some time, phone and cable companies and their shills and lobbyists had been spinning Net Neutrality as a "solution in search of a problem." But 2007 brought us a series of violations of Internet freedom which brought the "problem" into vivid relief for millions.
6. Media Insiders Suffer Telco-Vision - Don't always believe the purveyors of conventional wisdom in Washington media. ... Net Neutrality emerged as the No. 1 issue that thousands of visitors to TechPresident selected to be answered by all the presidential candidates. So the next time an insider tells you that Net Neutrality is dead, I advise you to check his pulse instead.
7. The iPhone Gets Shackled - The iPhone was shackled to AT&T. The reason? We have allowed carriers to exert almost complete gatekeeper control over all devices, services and content in the wireless sector -- a move that has left U.S. innovation generations behind other nations.
8. Bush's Justice Dept. Files Against Net Neutrality - The DOJ stated that broadband companies like AT&T should be able to erect toll booths and filter traffic -- upending the even playing field that has made the Web an unrivaled engine of democratic discourse and new ideas.
9. FCC's Rosy Broadband Report Wilts Under Scrutiny - According to Free Press Research Director Derek Turner, the FCC used an "absurd standard" to measure broadband -- 200 kilobits per second. "That was barely fast enough to surf in 1999...."
10. More Astroturf Sprouts Up, Speads Lies - Washington policymaking has spawned a cottage industry of phony front groups put in place by phone and cable companies eager to spread misinformation about anything that threatens their control over the network.