Both sides now

As a journalist, I’m always supposed to be objective, but everyone knows that can sometimes be impossible.

In the recent AT&T reported to the Federal Communications Commission recently, one company – Superior Telephone of Superior, Iowa, -- recently billed it $2 million in one month, or $8000 for every man, woman and child in the town it serves. The impact on AT&T’s earnings this year is estimated at $250 million.

Of course, to make its side seem preferable, AT&T refers to the Iowa telcos as scam artists and emphasizes the frequent use of the services for pornography.

It seems to me the problem here is that we continue to live under an antiquated regulatory system that seeks to do the right things in the wrong way. The Iowa companies figured out a way to make this system work for them in a way they say is legal.

Left unchecked, however, what they are doing will have great appeal to other rural telcos and the results could be disastrous. I’m betting the FCC will step in and make some changes, although I can’t predict exactly what those will be. Until there is a broader approach to fixing the bigger problem, however, I expect situations such as this one to continue popping up.