A few weeks ago, I was at the Poke Salat Festival in Arab, AL, when a customer approached me to ask why OTELCO was selling phone numbers to telemarketers. She said she would receive these calls from local OTELCO numbers, answer the call assuming it was someone in town trying to reach her, and then get accosted by some scammer. OTELCO is not selling numbers to telemarketers, but what that customer was experiencing is something… Read more »
A Time Line of the Struggle for Open Internet In December of 2017, the FCC repealed the Net Neutrality regulations passed in 2015. These regulations ensured an open Internet, where everyone has equal access to the web, and ISPs were required to be transparent with consumers. Since its repeal, many Net Neutrality proponents have promised to fight for its reinstatement. One of the strongest Net Neutrality champions has been Maine Independent Senator Angus King. Senator… Read more »
Last week, Motherboard published an article denouncing a speech made by FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, at this year’s “Free Speech America Gala” held by the Media Institute. In this speech, O’Rielly outwardly attacked municipal owned networks for impinging upon users first amendment rights. The commissioner’s exact words were “In addition to creating competitive distortions and misdirecting scarce resources that should go to bringing broadband to the truly unserved areas, municipal broadband networks have engaged in… Read more »
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica Two weeks ago we wrote a post about what you really sign up for when you join Facebook. We created that post as a response to the recent Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, where 87 million Americans had their information harvested by voter profiling company, Cambridge Analytica. The information was taken by a third party app, created by researcher Aleksandr Kogan, and used in connection to President’s Trumps 2016 presidential campaign. Now… Read more »
Facebook has certainly had its share of press lately. People seem shocked that the social media platform might be sharing their personal information. Jim Fossel in the Portland Press Herald comments; We Users are not the Customers, but the Products. Hmmm, where have we heard that before? Even if you don’t use Facebook, according to this letter to the editor, you could still be affected. You’ve heard that Facebook states that users give permission for… Read more »
The Valuable Role of Municipal Broadband in Helping our Households and... More »
The final installment of OTELCO’s Summer Streaming Series is all about... More »
Part One: On-Demand Services There are so many streaming platforms, and... More »
