Too Big To Care?

I actually just happened to find this article today

http://buzzmachine.com/2013/09/17/verizon-caught-red-handed/

right before the email reminder about blog posts this week, and it legitimately took my interest, because who doesn’t love ganging up on Verizon for some of their more unsavory dealings these days?  Not to mention I’m a customer of theirs.

So this brings me to the main point of the article.  How can a company as enormously large as Verizon not only plan ahead and enter a certain IMEI code into their system to allow Google’s new LTE Nexus 7 tablet to work on their system while simultaneously advertising all over social networks and in general about how they will allow access to their plan on it, then just go right back on that and do absolutely no such thing?

It just baffles me.  Why say any of that in the first place?  As someone who doesn’t own the new Nexus, I couldn’t particularly care less if they chose this particular tablet to just not work with, but it bothers me as a consumer that they would go to the trouble of making all these claims that they clearly had no intentions of ever following through with.  Secondly, regardless of how much I care or don’t care, it’s just plain illegal too:

(b) Use of devices and applications. Licensees offering service on spectrum subject to this section shall not deny, limit, or restrict the ability of their customers to use the devices and applications of their choice on the licensee’s C Block network, except:
(1) Insofar as such use would not be compliant with published technical standards reasonably necessary for the management or protection of the licensee’s network, or
(2) As required to comply with statute or applicable government regulation.

and they seem not to care.  Third, even if for some reason they simply didn’t care about the legality of it, they claimed themselves that they would never break this particular rule; quoting Verizon VP Jim Gerace:

“Verizon Wireless—and all the other participants in the recent 700 MHz spectrum auction—understood the FCC’s rules for using that spectrum in advance of the auction. Of course we’ll abide by those rules.”

Now, I understand that it’s been what, 3 days since this article was posted? Maybe something’s happened already, maybe they’re really working on it, maybe, I don’t know, something.  But if it’s not too cynical to say, I kinda doubt it.

Is it bureaucracy? Can nothing about it get done because everyone is calling each other in a circle waiting on the next person to do something for them? Possibly.  I somehow doubt they are doing this out of vindictiveness or something else equally silly.  But why choose this product?  Why deny users access to this product, claiming it’s literally physically impossible for it to work on their network, when a simple SIM card switch proves them wrong and to be liars?  It’s a bit odd for me to be on the side of AT&T on this issue, considering all the unlikeable things they’ve done over the years.

Lastly, it’s a bit funny that I find this article right after reading this past week’s assignment out of Professor Vinsel’s new book, which focused a lot on the FCC and its regulations of these big companies to make sure they were kept in line, didn’t do anything they shouldn’t, take advantage of customers, or even those who aren’t their customers.  Then here I find this article about Verizon flagrantly ignoring both the FCC’s ruling on this issue, and their promise to the FCC to follow it under every circumstance.  I’m gonna be keeping an eye out for what becomes of this issue, and I’ll hope they do the right thing.