ISP Spam

During the earliest days of the 21st Century, some executives at A T and T planned to have that Company become an Internet service provider, an isp. Anti-spam software did not appear on the Company list of items needed for the success of such an endeavor. The executives at A T and T hoped to tap into the new market for tools that could aid communication.

Throughout the 20th Century, the executives at A T and T had been pleased to see how society’s growing dependence on the telephone could help to swell the bank account of the men in the Company’s main office. They felt grateful for the inventive spirit of Alexander Graham Bell, a man who knew nothing about isp spam. Some might have recognized the “wisdom” of a past Supreme Court decision.

During the 1880’s, the Supreme Court had had to determine the true inventor of the telephone. That had been the case of Alexander Graham Bell vs. Daniel Drawbaugh. Mr. Drawbaugh, a tinkerer from the County of York, Pennsylvania, lost that case. The attorney for Bell had portrayed Drawbaugh as an “imitator.” As a result. the seven justices who could, without prejudice, rule on that case had voted in favor of Alexander Graham Bell.

Looking back, some executives at A T and T must have viewed that decision as a communication-friendly vote. They undoubtedly saw it as a vote that had led to creation of a profit-making company. Those executives did not know that the Court’s long-ago vote was about to lead them on a quest to become a more spam friendly isp.

Not too long after becoming an internet service provider, the company known as A T and T chose to provide their customers with the option of purchasing a spam filter. Isp spam was not the focus of the company, when it offered that filter The company wanted to provide customers with an easy way to filter out e-mails sent as part of a mass mailing.

At first, the executives felt quite pleased by the customer response to the new filter. At first, not one customer complained about the presence in the filter software of an isp spam killer. Then the executives at A T and T needed to inform their customers that the fee charged by the customers’ isp was about to change.

The executives arranged for a mass mailing via e-mail. They expected that those e-mails would inform customers about the planned fare increase. They did not realize that a spam filter would prevent customers from ever getting those e-mails.

Not until a newspaper article mentioned the planned increase, did the customers learn about the expected changes in the cost of their Internet connection. After reading that article, some customers called the AT and T offices. Those phone calls alerted Company executives to the need for improvements in the Company’s overly-efficient filtering software.

Soon after that the Company changed its software. It gave customers a spam filter that did not block mass mailings about any added isp features or fees.