Editor’s Note: Once More Unto the Breach
How in the name of Alan Turing did we get to this point? On the one hand, we’re busily uploading every detail of our lives onto an ever-changing multitude of digital platforms. Teens and 20-somethings post images of themselves that are, quite literally, revealing and might, quite literally, haunt them for the rest of their lives. Grownups, who should know better, blithely announce to the Facebook world that they will be on vacation...
PayPal Policy Opts You In for Robocalls
By Brian Fung The Washington Post PayPal is rolling out an update to its user agreement that threatens to bombard you with “autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages” — and by agreeing to the updated terms, you’re immediately opted in. PayPal can even reach you at phone numbers that you didn’t provide. Through undisclosed means, PayPal says it has the right to contact you on numbers “we have otherwise obtained.” The update...
FairPoint Weighs Sale or Merger
FairPoint Communications announced last week it had another net loss in the first quarter, despite saving $680.3 million on retirement benefits through its new collective bargaining agreement. The first-quarter earnings report is FairPoint’s first major financial announcement since company officials signed a new collective bargaining agreement in February with 1,700 union workers in northern New England. Under the new contract, which...
FairPoint Customers In N.H. Must Now Ask for Phone Book
Nashua — The long decline of the telephone book, once a staple of homes and businesses but increasingly irrelevant in the online era, is continuing with the announcement by FairPoint that it will no longer automatically send the books to all of its landline customers. As of May 1, residential white pages will only be available on request, the company said in fliers inside its most recent bills, but both residential and business...
Entrepreneur Finds ‘Sizeable Market’ for Custom Phone Numbers in some locales
San Francisco, a city with no shortage of status symbols, has just gained another: the 415 area code. Like New York’s 212 before it, phone companies are mixing a new, dare-we-say ugly area code, 628, in for new numbers. But there’s no need to panic. As with all status symbols in San Francisco and elsewhere, a 415 number can be yours, for a price. Ed Mance operates PhoneNumberGuy.com from the city. He started the company when he was...
