Some Problems With Opening Up Phone Lines To Competitors

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the not-so-easy dept

As the battle over just how open the phone companies need to be in granting their competitors access to their networks gets louder and louder, both sides are revving up the propaganda machine. The Washington Post has an article showing one of the problems a customer of these new competitor telecom firms can have. It’s the story of a bakery that bought cheaper service from a small company who leased their lines (at wholesale prices set by the government) from Verizon. Last week, the phone lines stopped working. The owner of the bakery called the phone company, which is really a bunch of business people who slapped their name on Verizon’s services. They don’t have any technicians – so they just say that it’s a Verizon problem. The baker calls Verizon. Verizon says they won’t speak to him, because he’s not an actual customer. Both sides are clearly playing the blame game, but if the companies leasing lines aren’t willing to handle tech support calls for their customers, than they’re clearly not going to stay in business very long.