The Empire Strikes Back
Verizon is not taking VoIP lying down.
First, TWICE sister publication Multichannel News is reporting that Time Warner, Comcast and Bright House Networks have filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), saying the phone company engaged in illegal “winback marketing.”
Basically, the cable companies are alleging that once Verizon received a request to “port” one of their customer’s numbers over to the cable company, they barraged them with inducements to retain their landline. According to FCC rules at the time, that form of marketing is a no-no.
Second, according to Om Malik, Verizon is suing everyone: “Verizon’s VoIP patents have become a lucrative source of income for the second-largest phone company in the U.S. After squeezing out $120 million from Vonage, the company has been filing patent infringement lawsuits against all comers — from tiny startups to cable giants like Cox. Today Verizon went after Charter Communications.”
These moves give off the faint whiff of desperation, but why? From the looks of Verizon’s fourth quarter financials, the totality of their business isn’t in bad shape at all.
An interesting related question: is Verizon (and the Bells generally) more concerned with VoIP cord cutters or cellular cord cutters? I’d hazard a guess that for now it’s the cable VoIP users that are the biggest concern as a cellular cord cutter would probably not sign up for cable VoIP either. (Malik has an interesting post on the landline/VoIP dynamic here.)
Bill Bernhard commented:
Ok here it comes..... If the Big Guys would practice what we in the
retail industry have been doing for eons to combat competition they
wouldn't have to worry about any competition. Having worked for a
"Bell" in a customer service rep position for a few months. Their
Idea of customer service is to try to get the consumer to forget
about any problem that they may have called for and keep them
occupied with a new toy that your selling them. Prime example a man
called in and was wanting to delete some of the services he had
been sold by his sales rep. He kept asking for standard phone
service no "packages" or any features other than call waiting. His
comment was the service rep kept telling him that he couldn't get a
"regular phone line with a phone" even though he was blind he
really needed the visual caller ID. Well off my horse... Truth be
told what gets business and keeps business is CUSTOMER SERVICE! and
remember boys and girls if there isn't a need why would anyone want
to reinvent the wheel.
Bill Bernhard commented:
please email customercare@mypressplus.com or call 866-71-PRESS (866-717-7377).