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February 14, 2005

The Verizon-MCI deal from a spam perspective

When rumors recently swirled that mega-ISP MCI was about to be acquired by Qwest, anti-spammers smiled. Denver-based Qwest has a pretty good record fighting spam, so the hope was Qwest would help MCI kick its spam habit. (MCI is ranked #1 on the Spamhaus list of the Top 10 havens for spam.)

But now word is out that Verizon has topped Qwest's offer for MCI and will end up the successful suitor.

This news drew some groans from the ranks of anti-spammers. Verizon is #8 on the Spamhaus list and currently hosts spam kings including Atriks, Aztech Internet, and Thomas Cowles.

In any case, as Reuters reports, "the deal marks a final chapter for MCI, which was formed as Microwave Communications Inc. in the 1960s as a scrappy competitor to AT&T -- then known as Ma Bell."

Posted by brian at February 14, 2005 4:14 PM