So, those who live and work in rural America have been sharing information with the FCC for nearly the past year on the issues associated with calls terminating in rural markets. We’ve done numerous test call studies (I’ve even made my 100 calls), we’ve measured and shared stories of school students in South Dakota whose parents never received word on their snow storm departures from their schools, companies who have dropped rural telco service because of call completion issues, job candidates who lost out on opportunities because calls did not come through, public safety calls that don’t make their way through – economic, public safety, convenience and reliability are all issues that are raised by this issue. Important? Critical? Relatively easy to start some enforcement action? All yes. However, what does the FCC choose to take action on? Today the FCC announced that the Enforcement Bureau entered into a Consent Decree with Verizon Wireless on the blocking of access to tethering applications. Really?? So, if a consumer can’t connect a secondary device to VZ’s C-block service, that’s a huge problem but if a consumer can’t receive a call AT ALL in rural America, well, that’s just the free market working. The public interest priorities in play for enforcement action are all wrong!
