Oh believe me how well I know. Before I worked here, I worked at the PSC here in Arkansas. There things they don't do but there are things we now handle in this office. We have a utilities section. It's apart of the Public Protection which I'm in. We also have investigators in our Public Protection Department tjat handle cell phone complaints and internet complaints. Also AT&T Uverse tells us that it is compatible with 911. In fact, law requires it to be compatible. But, I did find out that it's not compatible with the state system 211 or the system in Little Rock, 311. so, someone in our office is checking on that.
Sandra Fouts Phone Counselor Arkansas Attorney General's Office 323 Center Street, Ste 200 Little Rock, AR 501-371-2303 Fax 501-682-8118 -----Original Message----- From: Chip Orange [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 1:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Off topic but wanted to hear from other blind people on it Hi Sandra and all, I work at a state public service commission. We regulate utilities such as phone utilities, but not phone service when it's provided over the internet, like you're describing. I have serious reservations about such phone service, and would not recommend to anyone that they switch entirely from a landline phone to any other phone service for their primary residential phone service. This is mostly for reasons of safety: the phone from a phone company is backed up by buildings of batteries, which will keep it running during the longest of power outages. This just isn't true for internet or cellular phone service. 9-1-1 call location features are also another issue which only sometimes work with internet phone service, and which usually don't work at all for cellular phone service. In fact, even being able to call 9-1-1 and get someone local to your area can be a problem. there are many programs for low-income users which will offer free, or nearly free, landline phone service; these do not apply to internet or cellular phone service. Finally, as I started out mentioning, your landline phone service is regulated by your state, while cellular and internet phone service is largely unregulated. That's both quality of service and billing disputes. Ever had a charge to your phone bill you weren't expecting? Your landline phone provider will quickly remove that, because in most cases they're required to, but as far as I know no such equivalent law exists for cellular or internet charges. Right now I'm partially involved in a case before us where millions of people may have been over-charged by a collect call setup from institutions that only allowed collect calls as the only type of long distance calling. We would likely not be involved if it were an internet or cellular arrangement. Finally, there are laws governing how quickly the phone company must resolve a situation where phone service is out. There are no such laws governing internet or cellular phone service (that I know of). Some of this information does differ from state to state, but this is typical information. Just something for people to think about before they switch. Chip ------------------------------ Chip Orange Database Administrator Florida Public Service Commission [email protected] (850) 413-6314 (Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public Service Commission.) > -----Original Message----- > From: Sandra Fouts [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 1:34 PM > To: '[email protected]' > Subject: Off topic but wanted to hear from other blind people on it > > With the digital age coming along, my husband now have AT&T Uverse > at home. That includes internet, phone, and tv. > Since the phone system is now digital, my talking callier ID doesn't > work the same. It's analog. Anyone else run into this? Just > wondering. Thanks. > > Sandra Fouts > Phone Counselor > Arkansas Attorney General's Office > 323 Center Street, Ste 200 > Little Rock, AR > 501-371-2303 > Fax 501-682-8118 > > > > > If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original > sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your > message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your > message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. > > All GW-Info messages are archived at > http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted > using the search form at the bottom of the page. > > If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to > [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body of the > message. > If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search form at the bottom of the page. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body of the message. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search form at the bottom of the page. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body of the message.
