Iowa Telecom 'David' Battles Telecom Carrier 'Goliaths'

[Ironwalt]

Press Release Source: Great Lakes Communication Corp.


Iowa Telecom 'David' Battles Telecom Carrier 'Goliaths' in Unjustified Attempts to Block Numbers
Wednesday April 4, 1:52 pm ET
Great Lakes Communication Corp. Rallies Support of Legislators, Public Interest Groups, and Local Telecom Associations in Advance of Seeking Help from the FCC


SPENCER, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Great Lakes Communication Corp. (GLCC), a leading Iowa telecommunications company offering alternative conferencing solutions at affordable costs, today reaffirmed its solid market position and dedication to its partners and their end-customers amidst the attempts of some of the largest telecommunications carriers to block its conference bridges.

"We are totally comfortable in the role of 'David' in this epic struggle with the telecom carrier 'Goliaths' to pressure them to cease and desist with their unjustified blocking of our conference bridges," said Josh Nelson, president, Great Lakes Communication Corp. "As a small Iowa-based telephone company, we know how important it is to stand up for the 'little guy', or, in this case, the non-profit organizations, universities, religious groups and small businesses that lack the monetary resources and rely upon our free conferencing partners for their communications existence."

From the heartland to the nation's capital, GLCC has embarked on an all out grassroots campaign to spur its state legislators, representatives in Congress, U.S. Senators, and local/national public interest groups to write the FCC Commissioners to help them understand the severity and impact of this call blocking on their constituents.

GLCC has retained Jonathan E. Canis of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP to spearhead the cause for the blocking issue. "We have pulled together the extensive list of FCC precedent and policy statements that make it absolutely clear that big carriers cannot bully our clients by blocking their phone numbers," said Canis. "We will be asking the FCC to act quickly and decisively to put a stop to this patently unlawful behavior." Canis is also representing some of the free conferencing providers affected by the blocking.

According to Nelson, the situation began back in December 2006 when AT&T/AT&T Wireless decided to quit paying termination access fees to GLCC because the company was successful in attracting conference calling customers away from them. "Our conference calling business model is straightforward - we partner with conference calling companies that bring us the customers and we, in turn, supply the communications and pay them a marketing fee for their service," added Nelson. "Unfortunately, the AT&T/AT&T Wireless believes that cell phones are not intended for conference calling use which makes absolutely no sense and is totally unjustified in this age of collaborative communications."

Non-profit organizations such as the California Hunger Action Coalition depend upon free conferencing services like FreeConference.com to connect its volunteers statewide with free conference calling. According to Frank Tamborello, Executive Director of Hunger Action Los Angeles and Co-Chairperson of the Coalition, the blocked calls, if they continue, will interrupt planning of the coalition's annual event, Hunger Action Day, on May 8. "Our statewide coordination and activities have come to a complete halt as a result of these anti-market activities," added Mr. Tamborello. "We were recently blocked when a group of members on the Central Coast scheduled a call but half the callers were unable to access it -- these moves by the large carriers are appalling."

About Great Lakes Communication Corp (GLCC)

Great Lakes Communication Corp (GLCC), with headquarters in Spencer, IA, is a leading Iowa telecommunications company offering alternative conferencing solutions at affordable costs. The company works in tandem with its conferencing partners to deliver free conferencing services to a diverse mix of customers including non-profit organizations, universities, religious groups and small businesses to power their operations. GLCC is a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), a telecommunications provider company that competes with other, already established carriers (generally the incumbent local exchange carrier or ILEC). GLCC focuses on markets that are underserved and creates an affordable alternative to serve them - all at significant savings to its partners and their end-customers while maintaining the highest levels of quality, service, and reliability. For more information, visit www.glccom.com or call 712.432.4700.

© 2007 Great Lakes Communication Corp. All other marks are the property of their respective owners



Contact:
Great Lakes Communication Corp.
Kristen Ruiz, 712-432-4700
kruiz@glccom.com
or
Springboard Public Relations
Len Abbazia, 732-863-1900 x. 101
Len.Abbazia@SpringboardPR.com

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Source: Great Lakes Communication Corp.

[Fire14]

I like how they keep calling it "AT&T Wireless" in the article.

My question is this, did they block these numbers only from the cell phones or from landlines as well?

The way this article makes it sound is both were blocked from calling these numbers, which could be a problem for AT&T. I can understand the wireless & them getting away with it, especially with the clause in their contract & the high cost's being associated with it.

The article also makes it seem like Verizon is doing this, but never mentions them (to my knowlege no other carrier is blocking the numbers yet.)

The other thing that doesn't make sense (unless the lanlines are blocking these numbers) is that why can't they still do these conference calls using landlines?
They have to use cell phones only to do these calls?

[bobolito]

I can still call those numbers in Iowa from my cell. There's a bunch of them. Some allow you to call international numbers for free.

I don't think AT&T/Cingular is directly blocking the numbers. What they are doing is shutting those companies down using lawsuits. I think that's what they mean by 'blocking'.