Is T-Mobile USA blocking texts over process or medical marijuana?
T-Mobile USA Inc.’s customers might want to mind their P’s and Q’s next time they get the urge to send a missive in the form of a text message or text under the influence. The nation’s fourth-largest carrier in terms of subscribers argued in federal court earlier this week that it has the right to choose when and if text messages get delivered at all. Brought into court via a lawsuit filed by EZ Texting after it blocked short code services for the company, T-Mobile USA argued that SMS is not beholden to the same “must carry” requirements as phone calls and maintained it has the right to effectively approve or deny each of its partner’s clients. In a court filing obtained by Wired (PDF) in New York, T-Mobile USA wrote that it “has discretion to require pre-approval for any short-code marketing campaigns run on its network, and to enforce its guidelines by terminating programs for which a content provider failed to obtain the necessary approval.” This step helps “protect the carrier and
