[Update2] BellSouth's Shame.

BellSouth has been getting massive negative press regarding its relatively childish withdrawing of support to New Orleans following the City's announcement that they were offering free wireless connectivity. BellSouth's attitude clearly demonstrates they're more concerned with maintaining their profit margins than serving the public good -- even when a massive natural disaster creates an unprecedented level of need.

And Bill Oliver, head of BellSouth's Louisiana operations, should be shamed for his behavior. But scapegoating Bill Oliver ignores what is clearly a systematic attitude, if not business strategy, perpetrated by Bellsouth against municipalities. For example, when Lafayette, LA was deciding on whether to develop their own broadband Internet system, BellSouth threatened to close their 1300-person calling center if the city went forward. In fact, BellSouth continues to sue to prevent the popularly supported project from moving forward. You can read about BellSouth's continuing ill-will at the resident-run Lafayette Pro-Fiber website.

What can be done? One very interesting idea proposed by Esme Vos at MuniWireless.com "for cities and counties that are planning wide-area wireless deployments":

Read more...

Insert a clause in your RFPs and RFIs that says companies that have pushed for restrictions on municipal broadband deployments will automatically be disqualified from bidding on projects or at least will “lose points” when their bids are being evaluated. Consortia that include these companies will be at a disadvantage. Not only that, when the network is up, the city or county will not hire the same anti-muni broadband companies when it implements applications such as wireless VOIP for municipal employees.

Personally, I think that as long as companies are directly working against the public's best interest, the general public need be certain to protect itself.

Think these are just isolated incidents? As the Washington Post reported earlier, "William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc...Several big technology firms and public interest groups say that approach would enshrine Internet access providers as online toll booths, favoring certain content and shutting out small companies trying to compete with their offerings."

Connecting the dots, it's quite easy to see that BellSouth has a climate whereby public service is relatively non-existent in their business plans. Their goal is to systematically wipe out competition, whether it be municipalities or smaller businesses, and they regularly leverage their power to the detriment of the general public. What's expecially clear once one puts the pieces together is that BellSouth is engaging in this behavior as an integral part of their business model -- a shameful example of corporate predation.