Suing a Common Carrier? A Federal Government Business Oddity.

The oldest post you’ll find here is about an outdated but still wildly-profitable component of phone bills. Way back in August 2007 I wrote a piece about The Federal Subscriber Line Charge. Fast forward to today and see if you get the connection between Federal Subscriber Line Charge and Suing a Common Carrier.
https://youtu.be/Q9eYcGQB8wM
With next week’s US Presidential and its “old guard versus new guard” undertones upon us, looking at how powerful common carriers are seems especially timely. And there’s a case brewing that will boil down to the government suing a common carrier; AT&T would like both to be a common carrier, and not be one. And THERE’S business change. You know: unless it’s business as usual.

Over the years, I’ve written a few times about the way common carriers behave. And while Verizon’s been spanked most often over the widest ranges of issues, AT&T offends most egregiously, regulations-wise. Once again, I refer to an old story, when AT&T almost (but not really) asked not to be a common carrier.

This strikes at the heart of how the communications landscape works in the USA. Giant companies — growing larger seemingly by the day — both want regulatory protection and not to need to abide by it. That, of course, is a problem.

Suing a Common Carrier

Bringing us back to that suing a common carrier issue. The Federal Trade Commission sets rules, common carriers ignore them, and net neutrality dies a bit more every day. Of course, this brings us around to the old guard vs new guard thing I mentioned above.

Is there a smaller-business equivalent of AT&T’s legal flaunting of Net Neutrality? Sure, but nothing so compelling as the protection afforded by rules against suing a common carrier. That said, simply knowing how far you can push boundaries is a winning business tactic. And it’s one of the things we specialize in at Answer Guy Central.

If you want to have a chat about it, reach out here. No strings attached.