Carriers taken to task over texting policies

Public-interest and consumer groups asked the Federal Communications Commission to forbid mobile-phone operators from discriminatory interference with text messaging.
“For many people, texting has replaced calling as a way of keeping in touch,” said Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge. “The FCC should make certain that text messages, and the short codes used to dial them, are protected from interference from telephone companies.”
Teaming up with Public Knowledge on the petition for declaratory ruling are Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, EDUCAUSE, Free Press, Media Access Project, New America Foundation and U.S. PIRG.
NARAL Pro-Choice America recently had a run-in with Verizon Wireless over a short code it wanted to use to send wireless alerts to supporters. After the controversy gained national media attention, the nation’s No. 2 cellular carrier promptly reversed course and gave the abortion-rights organization access to its network.
Further, Rebtel, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) firm that offers low-cost international calling on mobile phones, has not fared as well in efforts to secure short code-enabled text message rights from Verizon Wireless, Alltel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. Verizon Wireless, the only carrier of the three that has offered an explanation of its texting policy, said it is standard practice to reject short codes from companies with whom it competes.
“Mobile carriers currently can and do arbitrarily decide what customers to serve and which speech to allow on text messages, refusing to serve those that they find controversial or that compete with the mobile carriers’ services,” the petition stated. “This type of discrimination would be unthinkable and illegal in the world of voice communications, and it should be so in the world of text messaging as well.”