Update: T-Mobile just shut down the text message service run by WeedMaps.com - a website that helps patents find legal, licensed medical dispensaries. T-Mobile decided the WeedMaps service, a service that was 100% opt-in, was unsanctioned and inappropriate and took it upon themselves to block it.

When Verizon refused to recognize the Abortion Right Action League's short code back in 2007, a petition with filed with the FCC to declare text messaging  a Title II telecommunications service. Earlier this year, The New York Times ran a story on the front page of the business section describing how Sprint acted when Catholic Relief Services tried to go outside the approved "text to give" plan. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/technology/25texting.html?ref=business

The idea that any non-profit or business must abide by whatever arbitrary practices, policies and prices a carrier wants to impose is fundamentally unfair. In 2007, Verizon claimed it had "fixed" the problem by recognizing NARAL's code and modifying its policies, but still retained the right to refuse or terminate a short code for any reason in its discretion.

It's time to remind the FCC and the wireless carriers that we are free people and we expect the rule of law to apply to telecommunication services.

Make a comment!