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Fairpoint Pledges To Violate Net Neutrality
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?"
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.
watching their customers dropping like flies...
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.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Did *you* read the article?
"... 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.
The Goal: A long simple life filled with many complex toys.
Sure, just have the government hand me a monopoly and free lines and I'll get started!
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
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)
Yes, I did RTFA, but unlike you, I did so with an open mind. Before the part you quote, it says, " Web-based e-mail users can continue to access their e-mail at the Verizon Web site until Feb. 6." In that context, it looks to me as though the Verizon webmail page is the "third party Web site" referred to. I'll grant that it's not written as clearly as it should be, but it does make more sense than the interpretation in the summary. Cutting off access to other provider's webmail site while allowing unhindered access to all of their other content just doesn't make sense. Telling new customers that if they want their third-party email on their homepage they need to use yours instead of their other providers does. My guess is that when the dust clears this will turn out to be Yet Another Slashdot Tempest In A Teapot.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
Read the paragraph before it. The "third party Web site" is referring to the Verizon web site, not Yahoo, MSN, etc. This is a non-story.
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.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
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.
Hmm well I read it as you can still use the "third party" email systems as meaning all those companies listed, such as yahoo. You just need to access it via the isp's portal. Now its possible the writer of that release whipped it up in 5 minutes without proof reading it for clarity so you might have the right of it... but strangely I'm going to continue leaning towards /.'s interpretation until proven otherwise. Better to holler and shout and be wrong than stay silent and be proven right when your no longer able to access your email on the official site.
The Goal: A long simple life filled with many complex toys.
I'll reserve my judgment until I see this reported in a better source. This article is written so poorly I suspect the author has no idea what his misstatement implies. If FairPoint is planning to block major webmail sites, the Rutland Herald missed out on a huge story. They seem to be the only news source with this information.
Look at what other sites 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.
No. If you were using Verizon's webmail page you're going to have to change to Fairpoint's. If you weren't, nothing changes.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
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.
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."
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