Verizon reverses decision to block text messages
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(InfoWorld) - Verizon WirelessÂ has reversed a decision to block text messages on its network from abortion rights group Naral Pro-Choice America after an outcry fromÂ net neutrality advocatesÂ and others. The controversy erupted Thursday, after a New York Times story said Verizon had rejected a request from Naral to send text messages to wireless customers who sign up for them. Verizon had said it has the right to block controversial or unsavory messages. Several other political groups, including the Republican National Committee and Amnesty International, have used text message campaigns. But Verizon backtracked on its position Thursday morning local time. "The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect, and we have fixed the process that led to this isolated incident," Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson, said in a statement. "Upon learning about this situation, senior Verizon Wireless executives immediately reviewed the decision and determined it was an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy." The old policy was developed before text messaging protections such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages, Verizon said. Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group, said Verizon's decision still shows the need for the U.S. Congress to pass aÂ net neutrality law, which would prohibit telecom carriers and broadband providers from blocking or slowing content from competitors or other groups. "Instant replay is not the way to guarantee the rights of Americans to communicate freely over telecommunications networks," Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge's president, said in an e-mail. "You cannot have unfettered communications by having the telephone company review each decision whenever a controversial issue is raised. A text message like this one alerting Naral supporters to act quickly on a pending political issue is useless after hours of delay by the telephone company referees." Cynthia Brumfield, president of tech consultancy Emerging Media Dynamics, called the original Verizon action "unbelievable" in a post on her IP Democracy blog Thursday. "Verizon is seriously [messed] up if it thinks Naral is promoting an 'agenda' but the Republican National Committee is not," Brumfield wrote. "And clearly Verizon believes that a woman's right to choose is somehow 'unsavory.'" The issue goes beyond Verizon's apparent political leanings, Brumfield added. "What's truly disturbing is that Verizon is imposing its own political views on its wireless customers without their consent, something that the carrier could not do in the landline voice world," she wrote. Naral on Thursday morning was encouraging visitors to its Web site to contact Verizon about its original decision. "What kind of company would deny its customers the ability to use their cell phones to participate in our democracy?" Naral said.
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Google chuffed Verizon has abandoned its legal attack on new rules that would allow US consumers to attach any device and any application to a prime portion of the country's wireless spectrum.â¦
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The recent stir created by Verizon Wireless when it turned down a text-message campaign from an abortion rights group, and then quickly reversed itself, is a reminder that wireless carriers, just like their wired counterparts, should not decide what kind of traffic rides over their rails.
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After months of vitriol, Verizon Wireless said it will drop its objections to Nextel&#39;s (Quote, Chart) controversial spectrum swap agreement with the federal government.
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Nextel Communications Inc. and Verizon Wireless unexpectedly resolved a heated dispute Tuesday over a federal proposal to clear up interference between cell phones and emergency response radios by moving Nextel&#39;s
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PROVIDENCE -- A judge granted Verizon Wireless a permanent injunction against a Rhode Island man accused of sending millions of unsolicited text-message advertisements to cellphone customers in four states.
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Yahoo Mail is making it easier to go back and forth between e-mail, instant messaging and text messaging - including letting people send text messages to cellphones directly from their e-mail.
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Saying it had the right to block "controversial or unsavory" text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon's mobile network available for a text-message program.
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Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America to make Verizonâs mobile network available for a text-message program.
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Verizon Wireless reversed an earlier refusal to allow an abortion rights advocacy group to set up a text message alert system with subscribers.
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A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court&#39;s decision that a Minnesota agency can&#39;t regulate calls through cyberspace like it does calls through traditional phone lines.
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A federal judge has granted Verizon Wireless a permanent injunction in its suit against a man accused of sending unsolicited text messages to its customers.
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Federal regulators decided yesterday to prevent states from heavily regulating companies that provide Internet-based phone service.
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Verizon Wireless has rejected a  request from an abortion rights advocacy group to set up text  message alerts for subscribers who signed up for the  information, but a company spokesman said on Thursday it was  reviewing its text messaging policy.
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NEW YORK - Nextel Communications Inc. and Verizon Wireless are settling their legal disputes, removing a key challenge to a federal decision to clear up interference between cell phones and emergency-response radios.
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Popular program restricting cell phone use could also hamper emergency 911 services.
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By Michael S Rosenwald, Washington Post Staff Writer  Verizon Communications Inc.