Congressional Reps Rewrite AT&T's Google Voice Complaint, And Send It To The FCC

Politics

from the at-least-try-to-be-creative dept

A few weeks back, we noted how AT&T was trying to claim that Google violated the very net neutrality rules the search giant is pushing for by blocking calls on Google Voice to various free conference service lines. However, as we explained at the time, the issues are totally different. However, from AT&T’s standpoint, they get to try to kill two birds with one stone. First, AT&T would love to kill the regulatory arbitrage situation that allows small rural telcos to charge incoming call providers ridiculous connection fees. So, complaining about Google Voice draws more attention to that issue. Separately, it gets net neutrality questions moved away from AT&T and onto Google, which AT&T generally dislikes.

Still, it’s hard not to be even more cynical when a bunch of politicians suddenly pick up interest in this issue, and ask the FCC to investigate Google using language that appears quite similar to the letter AT&T sent to the FCC. As Broadband Reports notes in that last link, it sure looks like AT&T got a bunch of friendly politicians to suddenly express outrage over something most of them didn’t understand — and they just had to rewrite the letter AT&T had already used. It’s as if these companies and politicians don’t even care how blatant it is that the lobbyists actually set the agenda.

Filed Under: arbitrage, congress, google voice, lobbying, voice
Companies: at&t, google

eBay Finally Realizes That No One Is Interested In Voice Communication With Others During An Online Auction

Failures

from the about-time dept

When eBay first bought Skype we were among the many, many, many people left scratching their heads wondering where the supposed “synergies” were. We were told two things. First, that Skype had many users in China who would now suddenly start using eBay for auctions. Why? No one knows. In reality it had almost no effect. Just because you make calls via a software program it doesn’t make you any more interested in doing online auctions through its parent company, apparently. Second, it would now allow buyers and sellers to communicate by voice. But why would they want to? Sure, maybe in a very rare case it might be helpful, but one of the advantages of an online auction system like eBay is that you don’t need to actually talk to the other party. And if it was that important to talk, the buyer and seller could just agree to use Skype on their own without eBay spending billions. And, in fact, studies showed that this “feature” wasn’t wanted by most eBay users.

But, still, in an effort to show that there really (no, really, really!) were some synergies, eBay integrated Skype into online auctions. Of course, now that eBay has finally admitted that there really were no synergies, taken a huge writedown on the investment and is looking to spin off Skype, the company is finally removing the integrated Skype buttons on auctions, and are even admitting that the company is involved “in an effort to remove features with limited buyer and seller usage.” Was it really that hard to recognize how little synergies there were before spending multiple billions of dollars?

Filed Under: auction, synergies, voice
Companies: ebay, skype

Congress Pushes Forward On Banning Already Banned In-Flight Calls

Politics

from the aren't-politicians-great? dept

The crusade against the almost non-existent in-flight phone call menace continues. First, we had the FCC insist that it would not lift the ban on in-flight use of mobile phones, in part because of worries from people about having to sit next to someone yapping away. Then, a few months later, the FAA also said that it would not allow mobile phones to be used on airplanes. As we noted at the time, this seemed rather superfluous, given the FCC ruling. But, of course, when there’s an issue that’s already been decided, who best to step in and decide it all over again but Congress?

Yes, a Congressional representative, Peter DeFazio, has given us the (I kid you not on the name) Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace (Hang Up) Act, which forbids “voice communications using communications devices on scheduled flights.” We had mentioned this law when it was first proposed, but it’s actually now been approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

While I can understand the annoyance factor that people fear (and, yes, it’s actually been shown that only hearing half of the conversation is more annoying, which is why it’s different than just having people talking to each other on the plane), it’s still not clear why such a law is needed. Beyond the FCC and FAA bans already in place, if such phone calls are really as annoying as most people predict, then why wouldn’t airlines already ban them, rather than piss off customers? Or, more likely, you’d get some self-selection in a way that benefits everyone. Some airlines might allow phone calls, while others wouldn’t — and people can self-select. Or, some airlines may have “talking sections” and “non-talking sections,” and, again, the issue is solved completely without needing a law at all. This is yet another example of Congress telling us what it thinks is good for everyone, when people are pretty well-equipped to figure that out on their own.

Filed Under: bans, congress, faa, fcc, inflight, phones, voice