Telecommunications provider, Madison River Communications, was chastised by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week and required to unblock network ports that were closed to prevent connections from customers using Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone connections.
Jeffrey Citron, CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp., a leading VoIP provider, called for a letter-writing campaign to Congress to protest network port blocking as a form of censorship. Citron said that the FCC moved within weeks of Vonage’s filing a complaint against Madison River Communications, fining the company $15,000 for, in effect, terminating all voice communications for the affected consumers, including emergency 911 service.
Citron wants to urge Congress to pass legislation to ensure “complete neutrality” of both wire-line and wireless telephone companies, which will ensure VoIP service providers and customers free and unfettered access to any telephone network in the country.
Dave’s Opinion
Madison River Communications should be ashamed of its actions, and its customers should express their resentment at corporate high-handedness by voting with their wallets: walk away, find another telecommunications provider.
Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.
Mixed bag subject here. I think whats going to have to develop soon is a minimum QOS agreement for every internet access account. Simply because best effort service is basically saying “you pay us and we may or may not provide you a functional connection”. Unfortunately the sheep of the world accepted that service and it became the defacto standard. Now its time for change of things like VOIP wont last.