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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Wed, May 9th 2007 12:50pm





Sprint Latest To Sue Iowa Telcos Over Sketchy Deals

from the blame-the-regulators,-though dept

Following Qwest's complaint to the FCC and AT&T's lawsuit, Sprint Nextel is the latest to get upset by the regulatory loopholes being exploited by Iowa telcos and services like FreeConference.com. Sprint is now suing 14 rural Iowa telcos, claiming that the companies are striking "illegal deals" with the various service providers. It's easy to understand the big telcos frustration -- but again (as when the big telcos blocked calls to these Iowa numbers) the blame is misplaced. It's not that the rural telcos were doing anything illegal. They were simply exploiting a regulatory loophole put in by regulators who never bothered to consider the consequences. So why not focus on getting those regulators to change the laws so that big telcos don't have to pay a lot more than a phone call is worth to a bunch of random Iowa telcos?

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  1.  
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    Matt Bennett, May 9th, 2007 @ 1:06pm

    cuz that takes an awful damn long time, that's why. Duh.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
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    Andrew, May 9th, 2007 @ 1:17pm

    Payback's a bitch, ain't it?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
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    Larry McAllister, May 9th, 2007 @ 1:48pm

    Sue, sue, sue.

    With connection charges, wholesale-wise, we're looking at sub 1-cent/min levels. The fact that Q, T, S, and VZ are all suing what is essentially 14 co-ops makes bad publicity.

    I digress.. there must be a lot of people using these conference services.

     

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  4.  
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    Andrew Pollack, May 9th, 2007 @ 2:49pm

    It is just another tactic -- lawsuit as business t

    I doubt anyone at the big telcos thinks that the little telcos are doing anything that isn't within the laws laid out by the state of Iowa. Having failed to gain regulatory relief however, these large telcos can easily sue the smaller ones into oblivion simply by virtue of having massive legal departments on their payroll, and forcing the smaller telcos into the legal defense business rather than the telecoms business.

     

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    Anonymous Coward, May 9th, 2007 @ 3:39pm

    IANAL...

    ...but aren't they essentially making it illegal to use these loopholes if they win the lawsuit?

     

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  6.  
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    Chris, May 9th, 2007 @ 4:14pm

    It seems to me that the reason they sue the small companies is that they are grasping at straws to get their money back from somebody. If that does not work they'll probably just raise their rates to all of us to make up for it.

     

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  7.  
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    Vincent Clement (profile), May 9th, 2007 @ 4:20pm

    And in the end, the customer will be paying for these lawsuits. Perhaps the telcos will introduce a "Legal Assistance Fee" on phone bills.

     

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  8.  
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    Anonymous Coward, May 10th, 2007 @ 12:00am

    Down with Sprint ! MetroPCS is the future!!!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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