Utah-based rural telco Beehive Telephone is giving its 850 customer base a simple message about their long distance service: "pick another carrier besides Sprint." Beehive, a service provider that serves the rural segments of eastern Nevada as well as Western and Southern Utah, has banned Sprint from using its network. As a result, 63 of Beehive`s customers that use Sprint LD will have to pick another provider.
Additionally, the shutdown also affects anybody that uses Sprint LD service to call Beehive`s 850 customers.
It`s a classic David vs. Goliath story, or in this case, the big carrier vs. the small phone company story. Beehive, in essence, pulled the welcome mat from its network when U.S. District Judge Dee Benson denied Sprint`s request for a temporary restraining order to prevent Beehive`s move while the two service providers examined the facts of a lawsuit over unpaid fees.
In the lawsuit, Beehive argues that Sprint simply had not paid the rural telco the $90,000 a month in fees to use its network in two years. Sprint, of course, shot back and accused Beehive of asking it to pay "access charges for artificially generated traffic."
