AT&T Urges FCC Not To Ban Text Messaging blocking

AT&T and other telecoms want to stop FCC from placing a ban on text messaging.

AT&T is making efforts to stop the Federal Communications Commission from banning the blocking of text messages. The Texas-based company, Verizon communications, along with other wireless operators, is asking the FCC to dismiss a plea that will impose common carrier rules on messages.

In 2015, the commission reclassified both mobile and fixed internet access as common carrier facilities under Communications Act’s Title II and utilized the new categorization to impose net neutrality regulations that are known for preventing Internet service providers from throttling or blocking traffic.

AT&T news exclaimed that wireless operators are currently facing mobile voice’s Title II common carrier rule, but the text messages’s status has continued to be unsettled, alongside the question that whether carriers could carry out the blocking of text messages. In August, the regulator was questioned by Twilio to make a proclamation that text-messaging facility must face the Title II rule, raising concerns amongst telecoms.

Verizon and AT&T urged the commission to dismiss the petition of Twilio, and so was done by the wireless association CTIA, which is known for representing telecoms in general. The Association filed on Friday that new limits could play a role in preventing wireless carriers from blocking spam. 

CTIA wrote "Twilio frames its Petition as an effort to curb what it calls the 'blocking' and 'throttling' of messaging traffic but in fact, Twilio is asking the Commission to invalidate consumer-protection measures that prevent massive quantities of unlawful and unwanted mobile message spam from reaching and harming consumers.”

AT&T news today affirmed that Verizon and AT&T filed similar claims on Friday. T-Mobile and Sprint did not write by themselves, but were represented by the Association. Twilio, known for developing an application that software developers could utilize to autonomously share text messages, claimed that text-messages must already be considered as a Title II facility as it tends to fall under the telemarketing legislation Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Telecoms are "treat[ing] messaging services as if they are in a regulatory no-man's land," Twilio wrote.

AT&T Breaking news reported that Twilio stated messages shared by its clients were lately blocked by telecoms. "Twilio provides an integrated service that allows businesses to send and receive text messages from the same toll-free number that they publish to field voice calls from consumers," the organization stated.

This provided client service agents another method to field queries from clients. The regulatory body’s net neutrality order issued in March stated that telecoms cannot block messages shared over the web but did not clarify regarding the conventional text messages’ status. The commission already had started a proceeding regarding the issue before Twilio filed a petition, but the request of the organization spurred a new round of petitions from telecoms, organizations that depend on advocacy groups and text messages.