Comments on: Verso introduces Skype filtering

By: jk

jk — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 22:23:53 +0000

I seem to have read somewhere that Verso has a connection to Vonage which will surely be unblocked. This will get interesting pretty soon. Perhaps at the carrier level they will offer an optional service to corporations to block VoIP.

By: Eric Mack

Eric Mack — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 22:01:20 +0000

I can see a corporate site deploying this, but an ISP? Perhaps they see it as a way to encourage customers to sign up for their VOIP service, which will no doubt be unblocked. I see it as a way to send large numbers of customers to their competitor. It will be interesting to see who's first to deploy. I'm sure someone will.

By: Scott_H

Scott_H — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 04:58:14 +0000

From their press release of Sept. 14:

“This new application provides the most comprehensive array of optimization and content management options currently available for cable operators and internet protocol service providers seeking to selectively disable undesirable network traffic and improve service levels on their networks. Applications such as Skype, Peer-2-Peer (P2P) messaging, streaming media and instant messaging increasingly cause congestion on service provider networks and interrupt or degrade service for other critical applications.”

Uh, how blatant can they get? “Undesirable net traffic?” From who’s perspective? Certainly not from the customer’s perspective. I would bet a years’ salary that the customers of these companies consider the apps Verso’s application blocks to be “critical” applications — probably one of the reasons they have broadband in the first place. I mean, come on, blocking streaming media, IM, VOIP…selectively?

This is pretty pathetic. I can’t imagine that there won’t be a lawsuit about this. I doubt Ebay will sit still while it’s $3 billion investment is “selectively” disabled.