FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sounds pretty pleased with steps wireless providers have taken over the past week. In a speech today he complimented AT&T for its recent 3G over VoIP commitment and Verizon and Google for upcoming Android headsets that will support Google Voice. The speech was among the most pejorative things I’ve read (get the full text here), and I couldn’t help feeling insulted at all the back-clapping going on.
We’re still a long way from a level of consumer respect that I find acceptable, so comments like the following rub me raw:
That’s because all of you are changing the world. You’ve turned clunky one-trick handsets into sleek and powerful mini-PCs. You’ve made the Internet mobile, freeing broadband from the desktop and making it possible to imagine a world where the Internet is available to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
You’re making that possible through the billions you’ve invested, and the billions you plan to invest.
I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t realize how nice the wireless companies have been. It’s almost like they aren’t making billions back through ridiculous airtime and data charges, egregious texting plans, and obscene service outages and dropped call rates. Granted, I don’t line nearly as many pockets in Washington as these companies do, but Genachowski addresses them like spoiled children. “Great job, Timmy. You only punched three girls today, not four, and frankly, two of them deserved it.”
I’m all for government support of broadband expansion and commitments to improved service, but let’s not coddle big wireless. Sure AT&T opened up to VoIP, but it took an FCC investigation to get it there. I pulled crap like this on my parents all the time. Sure, I was nice to my siblings, but as soon as I was alone I was scribbling swear words on the bathroom wall in red Sharpie.
Source: Reuters
Dell let employees at its Winston-Salem plant know to expect cuts in March of this year. What the company didn’t say was that the whole plant was in danger. Today Dell announced it would be closing the plant, eliminating more than 900 jobs from the NC market.
