Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick





SBC Has To Unbundle DSL

from the can't-get-around-it dept

A judge in California has told SBC that they can not deny DSL connections to customers who decide to use someone else for local telephone service. While companies like Qwest and Verizon have already made it official policy to continue offering DSL to customers who go elsewhere for local telephone service (or cancel it altogether in favor of a mobile phone or VoIP), SBC and BellSouth have been vehemently against doing so. BellSouth has faced similar lawsuits - some of which they've won and some of which they've lost. No matter what the legal standing, it's a bad business practice for DSL providers to do this. They're basically admitting that they have no real advantage and they need to bundle to stay alive. Especially now that fewer people actually need traditional local phone service, they're shooting themselves in the foot by encouraging people to sign up with other broadband providers. Only in the logic of a phone company would it make sense to turn away a broadband customer (which is their future) because someone won't sign up for local telephony service (which is their past). It's like telling someone early last century that you won't sell them a car unless they buy a horse to go with it.

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  1. No Subject Given

    by Joe Schmoe - Jun 11th, 2004 @ 8:14am

    "...It's like telling someone early last century that you won't sell them a car unless they buy a horse to go with it..."

    Or a song with a plastic plate...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. No Subject Given

    by NOBODY - Jun 11th, 2004 @ 10:02am

    No kidding, I actually ran into this very problem. Bout time. Those bastards. I hate the baby bells.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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