Dr. Herman I. Libshitz, a retired radiologist and potential Verizon customer who would like DSL. Sadly, Dr. Libshitz was informed that he could not use his name in his email address or as his user name because it has “shit” in it.
He tried his best to escalate the complaint with Verizon, but had little luck. First, he called the help line:
“We called their help line, and got a wonderful young man in the Philippines who told us:
” ‘We can’t install it because your name has - in it.’ ”
I asked the doctor how I was going to print that. He said, “Just say it’s a word contained in Libshitz.”
He had no luck with a supervisor, so he called the billing disputes number and reached another supervisor who promised to investigate and have someone contact him because ” the only person who could help was in Tampa, and that man would have to call India to get them to change the computer code.” No one called back.
Finally, he got a letter informing him that he could not use his name as a username because it didn’t comply with Verizon’s policy.
It took calls from the Philadelphia Inquirer to get Verizon to deal with Dr. Libshitz and his “questionable” name, and that’s what bothers him. He told the Inquirer that what he wants “is for these people at least to stand at attention to explain themselves. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to get to Verizon. . . . You cannot get to them. They are insulated from things like this.” Unless you work for a newspaper, that is.
Here’s Verizon’s official response:
“As a general rule (since 2005) Verizon doesn’t allow questionable language in e-mail addresses, but we can, and do, make exceptions based on reasonable requests. The one from Dr. and Mrs. Libshitz certainly is reasonable and we regret the inconvenience and frustration they’ve been caused.”
Source: The Consumerist
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Turk Telecom will roll out an IP network and expand its coverage footprint over the next three years at a cost of USD3.4 billion. It states that the fibre-optic lines to be installed by the telco will increase network capacity by 1,000 times. An additional project aims to provide services such as DSL, VoIP and IPTV for 4.3 million people living in rural parts of the country by November 2008.
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Turk Telekom has unveiled plans for rolling out an IP network and expanding its coverage footprint. The national operator will invest USD 3.4 billion in the plans over the next three years, from a presentation on the Transformation TT-NGN Program and the Rural Transformation Project. The company aims to increase network capacity by 1,000 times by installing fibre-optic lines. It has divided the country into 26 regions for the project, with 17 companies hired to work on the contract. The second project, which focuses on rural transformation, aims to provide broadband access for 4.3 million people living in the rural areas of Turkey. The project is forecast to cost TRY 240 million and make available services such as DSL, VoIP and IPTV. It should be completed by November 2008.
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Vodafone Portugal has awarded Alcatel-Lucent a contract for the supply of a DSL broadband network over which it will offer triple-play TV, telephony and internet services. The three-year deal will give Vodafone its first wired infrastructure in Portugal; the country’s second largest cellco by subscribers already offers wired broadband services via wholesale deals with fixed line operators. Vodafone Portugal has deployed Alcatel-Lucent’s TPSDA (triple-play service delivery architecture) that combines access and subscriber service delivery into an integrated DSL solution, as well as its next generation converged solutions. ‘Implementing a DSL network based on state of the art broadband and converged solutions was key to adapt our offerings to meet changing and more demanding customer needs,’ says Miguel Martins, Vodafone Portugal’s Chief Technology Officer.
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German wireline and broadband provider Arcor has reported results for its fourth fiscal quarter and financial year 2006/07, both ended 31 March 2007. During the quarter, DSL subscriptions rose by 245,000 to reach 2.1 million. For fiscal year 2006/07 Arcor reported year-on-year revenue growth of 10% to EUR2.13 billion (USD2.84 billion) and year-on-year EBITDA growth of 17% to EUR394 million. Net profit rose by 81% to EUR98 million, allowing Arcor to partially offset the decline in business of its sister group Vodafone Germany, which reported a year-on-year fall in net profit of 9.5%, or EUR209 million. Like its rivals, the cellco, which offers services under the D2 brand, has to meet extensive regulatory requirements and is operating in a fiercely competitive environment.
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70 percent US homes or 86 million households will have broadband internet access by 2012 according to a report by JupiterResearch. JupiterResearch finds that wider availability of high-speed service will prompt nearly 36 million new broadband subscribers over the next five years. Price reductions are responsible for driving take-rates for DSL services offered by the incumbent local exchange carriers while higher broadband transmission rates and attractive bundles are driving consumer adoption of cable modem service. JupiterResearch forecasts the number of dial-up internet households, currently about 33 million, will drop by over two-thirds by 2012 but the market for dial-up service will not disappear completely. As web content increasingly incorporates high-bandwidth applications such as video, the value of dial-up access will become increasingly marginalised.
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As part of its mobile plus strategy, Vodafone Netherlands has unveiled broadband and VoIP services for consumers, called ‘Vodafone Vast Bellen en Internetten’. Last year, Vodafone bought Dutch virtual network operator TNF and started providing DSL service to business customers. This service is going quite well, Vodafone NL’s CEO Guy Laurence told Telecompaper. Despite the high penetration on the Dutch broadband market, Vodafone thinks it can provide a favourable deal. The main driver for Vodafone to enter this market is to tap into new revenue sources and to get a share of the consumer’s wallet for the fixed telephony and broadband market.
Vodafone believes that consumers want to get services from one trusted brand, and according to own research, people trust Vodafone to offer DSL and VoIP services. To be able to offer the services, Vodafone has signed a wholesale agreement with Tiscali Netherlands which covers the DSL connections as well as VoIP and minute switching .Vodafone indicated it is aware of the forthcoming acquisition of Tiscali Netherlands by KPN, but sees no problem with this, as it does not change Vodafone’s broadband offering, and/or ability to compete with KPN or other broadband providers. Tiscali’s ADSL network currently offers a coverage of 60 percent, but this is expected to increase when the Tiscali wholesale department is integrated into KPN’s wholesale operation.
Vodafone’s Vast Bellen en Internetten comes in four varieties: 2048/1024 Kbps for EUR 29.50 per month; 4096/1024 Kbps for EUR 39.50; 8192/1024 Kbps for EUR 49.50 and 20.000/1024 Kbps for EUR 59.50 per month. The monthly fee is based on complete unbundling of the fixed telephony line. If customers want to keep their current KPN telephony connection, they receive a discount of EUR 9.50 per month. A spam filter is included in the service, while a virus filter costs EUR 1.50 per month extra. For EUR 7.50 extra per month, customers can make unlimited calls to Dutch fixed networks. Calls to Vodafone numbers are charged at EUR 0.10 per minute, and calls to the helpdesk are free of charge. Non-Vodafone mobile users receive a free SIM card to call the helpdesk. For existing Vodafone mobile users, who subscribe to a Vast Bellen and Internetten subscription, Vodafone offers free calling to fixed lines during the weekend with maximum of 1,000 minutes.
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The Board of Directors of Italy’s Communications Authority (Agcom) approved a decision which introduces bit stream, the access service that enables alternative operators to Telecom Italia to supply end clients with high quality broadband services based on DSL technology. The measure establishes in a detailed way the features of the bit stream offer, the use of the various technologies available, the quality of services, as well as the mode of defining the relative tariffs on part of Telecom Italia. The offer, which should be published in 15 days time by Telecom Italia, is subject to the approval of Agcom.
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Peter Bury, the regulator’s director of strategic resources, said on Wednesday at the Wireless Event in London that the auction of 192MHz of spectrum, situated around the frequency of 2.6GHz, would happen in the first quarter of next year. The terms for the auction will be published in October or November of this year.
The spectrum in question is highly contentious as it could be used for WiMax, a long-range, high-bandwidth wireless broadband technology which has thus far failed to gain a significant foothold in western Europe due to spectrum availability issues. However, the spectrum could also be used as an expansion band for 3G and its descendent technologies (such as the as-yet-undefined 4G), which also represent a type of wireless broadband. Ofcom’s firm stance is one of technology neutrality, which represents a break from the old days of mandating that a certain frequency can only be used for a certain technology.
“Our belief is that wireless service providers may well find that broadband is an opportunity for them,” said Bury. “We don’t have an opinion on which technology will be successful. We wish them all well.” Bury did however concede that, due to falling DSL prices in the UK, it would probably be “tough for wireless solutions to match those kinds of prices”. He added that wireless broadband was flourishing in the UK in the public access market, where the country is — globally — second only to Ireland in terms of hotspot penetration.
Bury also discussed the complexity of drawing up terms for the auction. It still needs to be decided, for example, whether the auction will take place over one or more rounds, and how the spectrum will be packaged — he pointed out that the size of the spectrum range on offer would make it unlikely that one bidder would try to buy all of it.
What is certain, though, is that the highest bidder will win. The winner will pay up-front for a 20-year licence, after which the spectrum rights will need to be paid for on an annual basis. Bury denied that Ofcom was “seeking to get a lot of money into the Treasury”, but instead insisted that the purpose of the auction was to find which business plan placed the highest value on the spectrum. “Sensible business plans will be funded to the level that makes sense, rather than the regulator favouring one,” he added.
In the next month or two, Ofcom will issue a consultation on the issue of “refarming” 2G spectrum. Some operators have called for the rules to be changed so they can use their existing GSM spectrum to carry 3G services, and suggestions have even been raised that certain operators might hold back on bidding for the 2.6GHz spectrum until Ofcom makes a decision on refarming, as this may reduce their need for the new spectrum.
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SMBs in India are set to invest USD 1.2 billion to boost their overall internet infrastructure and services in 2007, up USD 300 million from 2006, according to a report from Access Markets International (AMI). SBs dominate in terms of total expenditures but MBs comprise roughly a quarter of the overall internet expenditure in spite of the fact that they account for a mere 4 percent of the overall internet business universe. A detailed analysis of the internet-related spending components of Indian SMBs show that over 60 percent of SMB internet-related spending is devoted to internet-access technologies. Within the different high-speed internet access technologies, DSL is currently used by over 45 percent of internet SMBs and this penetration is anticipated to rise by nearly 10 percent this year. Broadband usage is also a priority for over 90 percent of MBs and close to 70 percent of SBs whose attitudes indicate that deploying broadband access or enhancing broadband internet speed is a vital strategic focus area in the next 12 months.
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Verizon: We Can’t Set Up Your Account “Because Your Name Has Shit In It”
