eli@pws.bull.com (Steve Elias) (11/05/90)
Patrick, thanks for sending out the digests about blocking of LD calls by certain carriers, but I have to question your calling such blocking "illegal". Has a judge declared it to be "illegal"? If not, how can you authoritatively call it "illegal"? eli [Moderator's Note: It is not necessary, and not really within the scope of the judge's duties to rule that something is illegal. The law (in this case, administrative regulations with the force of law) says what is illegal. The Public Utilities code in Iowa addresses what Teleconnect*USA was/is doing. The FCC regulations are specific in the same way. Common carriers cannot selectively accept or refuse traffic. They cannot interfere with the movement of traffic. The Federal Trade Commission (again, administrative regulations with the force of law) discusses denial of credit. The FTC has the final say-so on how AT&T's Universal Card is administered, i.e. AT&T refusing to honor its own credit card on calls to international points when they think (without proof, just like Teleconnet) that someone might be defrauding them. The fact that a few do cheat does not mean most people cheat. The FTC says you can't lump people together like that. I can authoritatively call it illegal because I can read the tariffs pertaining to handling of traffic by common carriers. I can authoritatively call it illegal because I know about FTC rules and regs plus FCC regs. Now whether or not a judge decides to act on it is a different matter entirely. PAT]