Verizon Ruling May Tax Dial-Up Customers

cellocgw writes "The Boston Globe is reporting that a court ruling in Verizon's favor could effectively allow phone companies to charge dial-up users on a per-minute basis." From the article: "About 68 percent of US internet users now connect via broadband, according to the latest data from Neilsen//NetRatings. That still leaves millions of users connecting the old way, in which modems in their home call local numbers over a telephone line to access the Internet. Precisely how many people were affected by the court ruling is unknown. Good said the number was in the thousands, but that Global NAPs did not have exact numbers and could not disclose the identities of all the companies that relied on Global NAPs for dial-up numbers."

Comments

What about folks with no alternate means?

[SlappyBastard]

I've lived most of my life in rural areas and companies like Verizon are loath to spend on the infrastructure to bring those areas up to DSL speed (never minding that farmers are among the most likely Americans to buy premium services such as DSL, HBO cable packages, etc when offered).

It's a little selfish for a company to pressure those consumers when the company is unwilling to invest in bringing them into the future.