Verizon blocking email from Europe

[hermetic]

Verizon Communications customers expecting e-mail from across the pond may be in for a long wait. The internet service provider has been blocking e-mail originating from Great Britain and other parts of Europe for weeks, and customers are upset about having their communications disrupted without notice.

Verizon began blocking ranges of IP addresses belonging to British and European ISPs on Dec. 22, according to the company. The blacklisting of e-mail from abroad was in response to spam coming from the region, according to a customer service representative at Verizon who identified himself only as "Gary." He said company policy prevents him from giving out his last name.

Verizon media relations manager Ells Edwards said he did not know when Verizon would discontinue its blocking of the European e-mail.
"Normally these things abate in a matter of days," Edwards said.
Verizon has more than 3 million DSL customers, according to Edwards.
Edwards suggested that Verizon customers who are waiting for an e-mail response from Europe should use alternative forms of communication. "If it's really important you might want to make a phone call," he said.

I don't have any links, just read it in a technology forum. Thought it would be nice if people knew about it.

[GCP]

1. WTF???

Who the hell do they think they are blocking peoples' communication like that?
The communication that they've paid for??
What if the USPS refused to deliver any mail from Europe?

This is totally insane and frightening.

[soup]

2. Wired News has it .

http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,66226,00.html

[ArkDem]

3. Death to spammers.

[ixion]

5. indeed, spammers suck, but Verizon sucks just as bad

I'm forced to use either them or comcast, neither of which are decent ISP's, in my opinion.

I don't use Verizon's email servers, thank goodness. I would be highly annoyed to have them deciding what email I can and cannot see.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. This is commercial suicide, isn't it?

For an ISP to have a company policy of "we won't do our job" has got to be the stupidest reaction to spam I've ever heard of. Do they want to lose all their customers?

[ixion]

6. it's only suicide if you have to worry about your customer base

and thanks to the fact that the ISP 'giants' get together and divide the areas to control the availability of the product in the marketplace, it really makes no difference to them if they piss off their customers or not, because their customers don't have many options.

For example, the only alternative I have would be to have a T1 line put into my house, which is really cost prohibitive at this point.

[Stephanie]

7. Well I have just decided I will never get Verizon

So they have just lost one potential customer - and I am still on dialup at home.

[GCP]

8. Yes, I was considering getting the DSL package

Because I was getting sick of the ever-increasing cost of cable modem from comcast. As I have friends and relatives in the UK, Verizon can kiss my ass.

[mcscajun]

10. Also check Earthlink

They're pretty much everywhere these days.

www.earthlink.net

[sunnystarr]

9. Check into DSL with your phone company. (nt)

[Gold Metal Flake]

11. Get a free Yahoo email account and use it.

Also, get a free Excite email account. Any other free email accounts? Get one. All of these operate independently from your ISP. Each one may filter some mail for spam, but you can usually collect the filtered ones in a "bulk" mail folder, and you can train that folder.

Understand that censorship can happen at any time for any reason. Create redundances for your online communications.