VoIP Providers Still Bugging Customers To Acknowledge VoIP 911 Limitations
from the waste-of-time-and-money dept
And we thought the FCC was against spamming people repeatedly. We noted last month, the bizarre idea that the FCC came up with to waste just about every VoIP user’s time this summer. They’ve mandated VoIP providers to provide E911 service before the end of the year (an amazingly short deadline, given that they’ve given mobile operators years and years to do so — and those operators are still expected to miss the deadline). However, in the interim, they’ve required all VoIP providers to get acknowledgment from their users that VoIP 911 may not work as well — and any customer who does not acknowledge this needs to be cut off by the end of this month. If you’re keeping score at home, this means that a VoIP user who doesn’t respond to messages from their VoIP providers about this, even if the VoIP provider offers perfect E911 service, will get cut off. Meanwhile, those same users who have a mobile phone that doesn’t provide E911 at all, and won’t by the mobile deadline, get to keep using their service without any interruption. What this has meant is that VoIP users are getting inundated with emails and paper mailings telling them they need to acknowledge the limitations of VoIP 911. I did the acknowledgment when I got the first email (which I almost trashed as spam), but since then have received two more paper mailings as well. It sounds like these sorts of mailings will continue as the various VoIP providers still haven’t been able to get all their users to check the all important check box. So, all you VoIP users, get ready for some more spam from your VoIP provider, courtesy of the FCC.