Fairpoint Pledges To Violate Net Neutrality 249
wytcld writes "Fairpoint Communications, which has taken over Verizon's landline business in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, has announced that on February 6, 'AOL, Yahoo! and MSN subscribers will continue to have access to content but will no longer be able to access their e-mail through the third-party Web site. Instead, Yahoo! and other third-party e-mail will be accessed directly at the MyFairPoint.net portal.' Since Verizon spun off its lines to Fairpoint in a maneuver that got debt off of Verizon's balance sheets by saddling Fairpoint with it, there was concern by the public service boards of the three states about how Fairpoint would deal with that debt. Fairpoint's profit plan: force all Webmail users through Fairpoint's portal, by blocking all direct access to Webmail portals other than its own. Will Fairpoint's own search engine portal be next? What can stop them?"
I don't think so, Tim. (Score:3, Insightful)
what can stop them (Score:5, Insightful)
watching their customers dropping like flies...
This wont effect me at all. (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is why I'm not looking for a new provider right now.
if it did, I'd be looking up new plans in my area. Thats just rediculous. They are altering and restricting service, with no added benefits anywhere?
The competitors should be advertising that they arent fairpoint as their best marketing campaign ever.
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:4, Insightful)
"... will no longer be able to access their e-mail through the third party Web site. Instead, Yahoo! and other third party e-mail will be accessed directly at the MyFairPoint.net portal."
Sounds pretty straight forward to me. You wont be able to go to mail.yahoo.com, you'll have to go to allyourbasebelongtous.MyFairPoint.net to access your yahoo email.
Re:Well, as they say... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, just have the government hand me a monopoly and free lines and I'll get started!
Re:I don't think so, Tim. (Score:1, Insightful)
And as soon as there support lines are ringing non-stop, and they start losing some of thier bigger customers, that will stop pretty soon.
Their and their, you stupid cunt.
Re:Good thing (Score:3, Insightful)
My guess is users attempting to navigate to Yahoo's mail site are simply redirected to Fairpoint's portal page, so their access isn't blocked, and the average clueless luser may not notice a thing
(other than the page looks different)
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:3, Insightful)
Verizon provided a service to IT'S customers where they can read webmail of another provider on their web page. Fairpoint is saying that after x date that if you still want that kind of service you have to go through THEIR web page. You can still go to Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Hotmail, and read your mail from those pages directly.
Article says:
So, (1) customersl ISP email addresses are changing, and (2) people with certain non-Fairpoint webmails will have to read their email through MyFairPoint.net instead of "the third party Web site" which I take to mean the AOL/MSN/etc site ("third party" being, not Fairpoint or the subscriber).
I DID RTFA, and it certainly seems to be saying what you say it isn't. Do you have a better-worded article?
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds pretty straight forward to me. You wont be able to go to mail.yahoo.com, you'll have to go to allyourbasebelongtous.MyFairPoint.net to access your yahoo email.
I think the article is wrong, having been written by a typical clueless journalist.
This sounds like Verizon subscribers were getting some sort of "partner" package with Yahoo, MSN, and/or AOL -- i.e. certain things like email service were out-sourced.
My father was offered the same deal with Southwestern Bell (now AT&T) DSL. I steered him away from it.
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:2, Insightful)
Did *you* read the article?
Frequently the authors of such articles are not very technical and don't understand all details of the situation.
It is eminently plausible that the author of the article was confused, AND Fairpoint was talking about the third-party Verizon portal for accessing Yahoo mail and other webmail services.
In fact... it's much more likely than that an ISP would go to measures to block third-party webmail sites
Which would be extremely unpopular among subscribers, and might upset the third-party webmail services, causing them to take action against the ISP, i.e. by blocking access through the unauthorized "portal" site
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly. they are shutting down VERIZONS integrated email portal. NOT blocking access to mail.yahoo.com
The whole story headline is a troll and should be voted down.
Re:Good thing (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't even call it net neutrality, it makes it an internet issue while this is just plain old common carrier (this was a previous article recently somewhere). I, as a telephone customer, call whoever I want. AT&T can't stop a call and say "Sorry, that's not a customer of ours or an approved partner, sorry. Call someone else."
It is not the googles and amazons of the world "calling" various internet surfers and demanding attention. It's the internet surfers who go out and "call"/retrieve the web pages they want. As soon as an ISP blocks that, they are not providing the internet they promised and lose common carrier status and the legal benefits it occurs by staying neutral and not checking what web pages are retrieved.
I hope Fairpoint goes through with this and gets their ass handed to them.
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:1, Insightful)
It's referring to the Verizon portal which is third-party to the web service. Note the singular use of "the third party Web site" rather than sites.
How about someone settle this once and for all and call fairpoint asking for clarification.
Customers with questions can call FairPoint at (800) 240-5019.
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:3, Insightful)
I doubt it (Score:5, Insightful)
Look at what other sites [boston.com] are reporting about this deal. "In Maine, regulators have alerted FairPoint that it will be scrutinized more closely than probably any other utility in the state's history." If true, the details will come to light quickly as this hits the major news outlets.
Re:No it doesn't. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't think so, Tim. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was hit by the irony of the company name. Anyway, if I understand this correctly, this is a win-win situation for Verizon.
FairPoint forces all web mail systems to funnel through its own portal, thus generating ad-generated and direct-marketing revenue streams. With this they can quickly eliminate any remaining debt. (And, of course, there are surely technological means around this -- tunneling, and so forth.)
Or they piss off customers and those who can switch to another provider, will. The company becomes insolvent or sells to someone else.
Either way, the debt is already the problem of someone other than Verizon.
Although, I think the bigger question is what happens to, and who safeguards, all of the data and personal information which will easily be harvested using a web mail proxy-portal?
Re:Good thing (Score:5, Insightful)
When I worked ISP tech support, I used to get calls from customers asking me to give them their passwords. After several minutes of confusion, I would discover the customer meant his Yahoo! (or Hotmail, or whatever) password. I would explain that we do not have that information as he is using a third-party system. To which the reply would come, "well, you're my Internet provider, aren't you?"
FairPoint... all I can say is you better have plenty of aspirin and therapy coverage for your employees.
Re:I present (Score:2, Insightful)
Personally I think that they are shooting themselves in the foot just to later discover that they have burnt all their bridges.
Re:I present (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see the problem with what Fairpoint is doing. They have every right to filter all communications through their portal if they so wish. I think Fairpoint's upstream providers should do the same so that we'll see this soon:
A spokesperson from Level 3 Communications had the following to say, "We wholeheartedly endorse Fairpoint's limitations they are imposing on their Internet users by requiring them to access common webmail sites through the MyFairPoint.net portal." The spokesperson continued, "Following their example, we are pleased to announce that access to the MyFairPoint.net portal will only be allowed through the MyLevel3.net portal and are working with Fairpoint's other upstream providers to implement similar restrictions."
TFA is ambiguous and likely misunderstood (Score:2, Insightful)
Usually, there are two parties to an agreement, and third parties are all others. But when an agreement between A and B is changed to an agreement between A and C, becase B sold its part to C, then there are suddenly three parties, until everyone forgets B ever was part of the deal.
To complicate matters even more, there are multiple agreements here, one between the user (A) and Verizon/Fairpoint (B/C), and another between the user and (say) Yahoo. With respect to the second deal, Verizon and Fairpoint are third parties. With respect to the first deal, Yahoo, MSN, etc are third parties.
NOW tell me what "third party web site" the users will no longer have access to, or will no longer access their emails through.
I guess the real meaning is that Verizon had a web portal in which Yahoo and some other webmail providers was integrated, so that users could have the impression that Verizon was doing an email service. Now Verizon is closing its site, and Fairpoint is taking over, providing a new portal with similar integrated access to yahoo etc.
Re:I don't think so, Tim. (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know if telecoms providers like this are subject to any type of laws about interfering with utilities, but I'm pretty sure even if you got the effect of decreasing uptime and causing them grief, you're probably going to wind up in some kind of serious legal trouble, and possibly be liable for the financial consequence of fixing those lines....
Re:I live in Vermont and have Fairpoint (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps this might explain something:
https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?.partner=vz-acs&.done=http%3a//verizon.yahoo.com [yahoo.com]
Verizon and Yahoo have some sort of integrated portal.
Non-story.
Re:ISPs don't have common carrier status?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Answer: ISPs have lobbyists. Welcome to America: government for the highest bidder.