I am thinking about leaving BellSouth.

[Maddy McCall]

Thank god all of this came to light--I was thinking about signing a year-long contract with them on DSL and phone service, when all of this came out.

Who else is thinking about leaving their providers or has already left theirs? Can you all suggest phone and internet providers that do NOT turn over your records to the government?

I don't have a damned thing to hide, but I am VERY pissed that my government is spying on its citizens. I want to ditch the corporate enablers and go with new providers.

[skooooo]

1. ...thus began the great phone services migration......(nt)

[kath]

2. Does anyone know Cox's involvement with this? Did they give up phone

records, or internet records?

We have our high-speed internet with them already. Local phone service currently is with AT&T, but I'm thinking of switching to Cox for local phone. Not sure what our other options are for local service. I'd been wanting to leave AT&T even before this scandal broke, 'cuz they just raised our rates nearly 15%.
Our long-distance is with Working Assets, and I would really hate to leave them - they're great.

Looks like the concept of a SEARCH WARRANT really is as obsolete as the Geneva Conventions in the minds of the assholes currently in charge.

[RoyGBiv]

9. No ....

Cox has specifically refused to hand over records.

They haven't been leaned on yet, so who knows whether they will when and if they are or not. However, Cox has recently taken measures within the business to consolidate control of how it functions internally, which was, in part, a hedge against interference of this sort.

[charlie]

10. I'm with Cox, too

Cox has answered NO to this survey question:

"Have you turned over information or opened up your networks to the NSA without being compelled by law?"

Further, a Cox spokesman has said, "Cox has never received a request for information or a wiretap that was not accompanied by a warrant."

http://news.com.com/Some+companies+helped+the+NSA%2C+but+which/2100-1028_3-6035305.html?tag=nl

[RoyGBiv]

19. From what I've seen ...

They're very serious about it.

To get records from Cox, you have to present a clear warrant, which is then transmitted to a legal department that determines its validity. If there are any problems, they send it back "request denied" until a proper warrant is submitted. When the warrant is determined legal, they will hand over the specific records requested to the judge who signed the warrant. (I have no link. This is from a policy document I got from Cox when I asked about this.)

This actually irritates customers trying to get info on spouses in divorce proceedings, but it's necessary, and I'm thankful they do it.

[charlie]

21. I hope that's so

Glad to see you in this thread. Much thanks for the reassuring info. I figured if anyone would know, it'd be you :hi:

[RoyGBiv]

23. Me too ...

I think they're telling the truth so far. It was kinda weird at the time, but the policy for this was hardened about a year ago to make it even more difficult, to the point of making it an offense that would (not "could" but "would") result in immediate termination if this policy was not followed to the letter. Seems to make more sense now. The guy who signs off on these kinds of decisions is not a friend of the administration, is actually a personal friend of John Kerry.

I don't claim to know everything of course, but based on what I do see, I'm fairly confident at the moment.

:hi: back at ya.

[tulsakatz]

34. cool!

thanks for the info! I was wondering about Cox too..........

[back2basics909]

3. I WISH...

.. i could move to Quest, but it'snot available in my area.

[Suich]

4. I'm dumping AT&T tomorrow

and qoing with QWest. It won't surprise me at all if AT&T wants to charge me some outrageous cancellation fee!

[enki23]

5. glad i have a cable modem, and no long distance plan at all

.

[Keseys Ghost]

6. I'm gone

I intend to break every contract immediately. I believe I am legally justified in doing so.

[SSX]

7. signed up for Vonage today.

I guess now I have til they give the internets over to the BFEE.

[Maddy McCall]

13. Hey! I'm in Mississippi, too.

Where are you?

Who are you using for internet service?

Welcome to DU. :toast:

[SSX]

31. Jackson

Roadrunner from Time Warner

[Corgigal]

8. I have MCI but

I have them for both local and long distance. It was part of a package that help me get rid of BellSouth. Now the problem is finding a new local carrier that isn't Bell South.
Bastards have us coming and going..

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

11. try Packet8 VOIP

Cheaper. (If you have high speed internet).

[Maddy McCall]

14. I have high-speed internet, but it's BellSouth.

I need to ditch BellSouth and get cable...I live 1/2 mile off of the road, though, so I don't know if they'll run line all the way to my house. :shrug:

What do you think? Is it worth a try to at least call and ask?

[SSX]

32. Where are you at?

I'll check into it if I can.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

36. They might be. You never can tell.

The worst they can say is no.

[Keseys Ghost]

12. From Crooks and Liars

Getting ready to switch phone companies?

AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth are all giving up our information and might be liable. One emailer said he's refusing to pay his AT&T phone bill and many others are extremely angry. I say let's send a message and start switching to companies if we're able that value our privacy, Some choices are T-Mobile, Nextel and Sprint as far as I know. I'm calling Verizon tomorrow to try and get some answers. (I know that many are locked into contracts.)

What say you?

FDL: "Some may be locked into contracts but for others…well, maybe it's time to take the Blackberry plunge (I'm not there yet myself but have a feeling I will be by the time election season rolls around). Qwest refused to comply with the government's request...read on

http://crooksandliars.com/

[Tsiyu]

15. Self-delete

Dang it, why doesn't ma log out???

[antigone382]

16. OK, THIS time, it's me. Any land line you buy will still be owned by BS.

I used to work for a phone company in Georgia that sort of competed with BellSouth. But they actually bought their phone lines at a discount from BellSouth and resold them--acting sort of as middle-men. Any land-line that you buy in that region is ultimately going to be owned by BellSouth, unless you move to an area with a telephone co-op like Ben Lomand in Tennessee.

Now, the girl in the cube next to mine had to process requests for information about particular phone lines...and I heard her make it clear on multiple occasions that she was NOT allowed to give out any info to ANYONE without an official subpoena. And as far as I know, the only info that BellSouth could give was that our company owned that particular phone-line (but I'm not sure about that; it wasn't the department I worked in). However, that was three years ago. I don't know if their policy has changed since then (the owners were Kenneth Copeland loving Christians, and I'm pretty sure they were RWers).

If you'd like, I'll PM you the name of the company, and you can contact them to see what their policy is and if they offer phone-lines to residential customers. Before, they specialized in payphone lines, but they were getting into the commercial market to make up for lost revenue due to cell-phones, and by now they might have moved into residential lines as well.

[Maddy McCall]

17. I really appreciate it, but I think I'm going to go with Vonage...

and then either go with satellite or cable internet.

That's where I'm leaning, anyway.

Wait, though...if I go with Vonage, are you saying that Bellsouth could still have access to my info?

[antigone382]

20. I don't know about that...I don't think so.

Vonage is broadband, right? So it would be connected through your cable lines...I'm pretty sure they aren't getting the actual service through Bell South, like my company did...but the best thing to do would be to ask Vonage themselves.

[Boredtodeath]

25. Vonage is great

I've used Vonage for more than 2 years.

The answer to your question is NO - Bellsouth does not have access to your phone records if you use Vonage.

[coalition_unwilling]

18. Can someone tell me who Cingular (in California) is currently associated

with? A long time ago, they were part of SBC, but got spun off and I'm not sure who they are with now or whether they are a free-standing entity.

I'm going to cancel my cell phone contract with them if they're not with Qwest.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

26. I thought with Vonage you can't get normal 911 service? Someone

told me this at work.

[Rainscents]

29. That was when they first came out. It takes 90 days for them to have

this work in your phone system.

[RoyGBiv]

27. Cingular merged with AT&T n/t

[Rex]

22. Problem is that it has been going on for 5 to 20 years or maybe longer.

I'm not sure why no one said a thing about AT&T getting split up in 1984 and yet it is okay for them to re-merge with SBC. Sounds like a 'you scratch my back' kinda thing.

[madmark]

24. i would hope the people who had their privacy violated would vote with

their wallets and brutally punish the malfeasant telcos, and reward the ones that refused the warrantless search. Qwest, my provider, have done a whole range of bad things with respect to my service (cannibalizing in stead of increasing phone connection pairs at my office building and consequently knocking me off the system everytime they repaired somebody else phone), but this they got right an in a way makes up for their past bullshit.

[mwooldri]

28. Do you have _cable_ broadband available?

If you do, then you can sign up for service with them, and then go for an Internet phone option like Vonage (I have Lingo as my choice though as I call the UK a lot and Lingo to UK is free!).

Now if you really hate Bellshite that much and you don't have a cable internet option you can always go with a competing carrier. I had Birch for some time and they're a bunch of friendly folks. They've just come out of Chapter 11, but because Bellshite had to show that they offered some sense of 'competition' they had to partner with other companies like Birch to show that there is some kind of 'competition'. In other words, Bellshite sells Birch the lines and Birch then sells the service to you. If you have a phone fault, then it's a Bellshite engineer who will come out, not a Birch guy.

But that is the only thing I can even suggest that might show some displeasure at BS.

Mark.

[Maddy McCall]

30. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if the local cable company will...

run a line to my house. If they will, then I'm going to drop Directv and Bellsouth, and go with cable internet and vonage.

[recoveringrepublican]

33. Will be calling Knology to get their phone service. nt

[KitchenWitch]

35. I am so grateful that my landline is with Qwest!

My cell account is with another carrier, and I am not sure if they caved or not, but for once I have something complimentary to say about Qwest.