A group of well-known nonprofit organizations have banned together to submit a letter to the FCC explaining the problems and barriers facing the use of SMS to further their cause.
The move mimics that of the Mobile Internet Content Coalition (MICC) — of which mobileStorm is a member company — who shares a similar goal of forcing the FCC to take action within the text messaging community. Washington-based public interest group Public Knowledge is leading the pact by filing the letter with the FCC on behalf of nonprofits that include American Public Media, Center for Community Change, The Humane Society of the United States, Reform Immigration for America, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“These organizations care about text messaging because they want to use text messaging to advance their mission,” Public Knowledge said in a blog post. “Text messaging could be a great way to reach out to supporters, tell them what is going on, and even raise a little money in the process. Unfortunately, today the world of text messaging is bogged down in layers of obscure, interlocking bureaucracy that can make it hard to innovate, hard to communicate, and hard to connect.”
Public Knowledge originally filed a petition with the FCC back in 2007 asking that it clarify that text messaging is subject to the same nondiscrimination rules as voice communications. Since 2008, however, the petition has been in limbo at the FCC, which has neither granted it, denied it, nor stated any reason for its inaction. Since then, Public Knowledge has gained major momentum for its cause through support from organizations like the MICC and now nonprofit organizations, so the FCC can’t lay silent for much longer.