* Also: The Electronic Modernization Surveillance Act gets approved; and Qwest enhances its business VoIP services
Last year’s multibillion combinations of Verizon-MCI and AT&T-SBC resulted not only in the two biggest U.S. carriers but in two monster billing-integration projects. As colleague Denise Pappalardo reports, neither megacarrier has made much headway in consolidating its billing systems, but they do have plans underway and are taking interim steps designed to boost customer service. Customers are eagerly awaiting the integrated systems, which should result in more accurate and easier-to-understand bills.
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A committee in the U.S. House has approved a controversial bill that would broaden the government’s ability to conduct electronic surveillance on residents by making it easier for federal law enforcement officials to get court-issued warrants. IDG News Service’s Grant Gross reports that the Electronic Modernization Surveillance Act, which is opposed by several privacy groups, would also allow federal law enforcement officials to spy on U.S. residents for up to 90 days without a court order in the period after a terrorist attack. The bill would reduce the amount of information required from federal agents applying for a wiretapping warrant from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
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Qwest enhanced its business VoIP services with two offerings designed to facilitate seamless hand-offs between IP telephony environments and the PSTN. Qwest’s OneFlex IP Long Distance and OneFlex IP Toll Free services are targeted at business customers that host their own IP PBX or softswitch environments vs. outsourcing that to Qwest. IP Long Distance allows these customers to make domestic and international long-distance calls by terminating IP voice traffic to the PSTN. IP Toll Free enables IP telephony business customers to receive toll-free calls.
