AT&T Says Don't Use VoIP For A Few Weeks
from the wait-a-second. dept
AT&T has been working to upgrade its CallVantage VoIP offering to make it compliant with E911 requirements (requirements with a fuzzy deadline no one plans to enforce). I'm a CallVantage user, and a few months ago, was told that if I wanted E911, I needed to change my phone number -- something I did not want and had no intention of doing. This resulted in a stern warning from a customer service person at AT&T about how I was leaving myself at risk. AT&T's next move concerning CallVantage 911 was its policy of forcing you check in each time the telephone adapter has been reset. Since I happen to live somewhere that has frequent power outages, this means that half the time I go to make a phone call, I have to sit through a 30 second blurb about how I need to confirm that I have not moved my adapter to a new location (doubly annoying is the fact that you can't "press 1" to tell AT&T that you're still in the same location until after the whole message has played). Over the weekend, the situation got even more annoying, and it hasn't gone unnoticed. AT&T contacted many customers (including me) to let them know that upgrades were being performed for better 911 services, but then telling people they could not move their adapters during this unspecified period of time. If the adapter is moved, the notice claims, users will not be able to use their phones other than to call 911 or toll-free numbers for the duration of this upgrade. The time given for the upgrade period is "a few weeks." The power went out at our house Sunday evening, and while I haven't had to make a phone call since then, I wonder if this means I won't be able to use the phone system I'm paying for until whenever AT&T judges it to be okay again. Either way, it seems a bit ridiculous for AT&T to give no advanced notice of the fact that important functionality of their VoIP system cannot be used for "a few weeks" and to not give any way to get around such blocks.
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Why are you still a customer?
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Two Words
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Re: Two Words (One word)
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Re: Why are you still a customer?
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Re: Why are you still a customer?
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UPS
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Re: UPS
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Time to change....
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Re: Time to change....
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battery backup
The government is forcing all VoIP providers including my old employer Lightyear to either enable E911 or shut off the service. VoIP providers had 120 days to comply which is not a lot of time when you're talking about notifiying and adjusting service for millions of customers.
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Re: battery backup
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Re: battery backup
And a UPS, while allowing him a bit more time once the power goes out, may not be a viable solution of the power outages last more than the length of his battery.
Yes, VoIP is cheaper, but I gather a lot of that is because there is very little infrastruction to create compared to a fiber/copper-based POTS. Yes, VoIP services will go through growing pains while they figure out the best way to do things and implement new services (like E911). But why should he be told to not to move his adapter for fear of his service being screwed up.
The big question is, if it does mess up, what is AT&T going to do about it?
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FCC Mandate
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Re: battery backup
My God that is a dumb comment. VoIP isn't cheaper because of lousy service, it's the infrastructure that makes it cheaper.
I didn't go through any of this AT&T type crap with Vonage and it's E911 service.
And to say that Vonage is the AOL of VoIP is also just ignorant. I suppose to you any large company in any industry is the AOL of that industry? Just because they are a bigger company and they advertise doesn't make them AOLish.
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Why should it matter?
Glad I've got Vonage.
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Re: Why should it matter?
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Re: Why should it matter?
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No Subject Given
I like having handset extensions all around the house, otherwise I'd go back to cell phones only. Might have to look into cell-socket type devices if this keeps up.
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Lingo - Even better than Vonage
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Re: Lingo - Even better than Vonage
I don't think that just advertising makes you like AOL.
The bottom line is that people are just telling the guy to dump ATT if he's not happy and switch providers. I'm sure that they recomend Vonage becasue they've had good luck with them just as I have.
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Re: Lingo - Even better than Vonage
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AT&T VoIP Service
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VoIP Services
I have had the power go out several times, and they never even flinched.
Customer service is good, and the online tools are pretty slick (except they now prefer IE as your browser - yech)- with all the VoIP bells and whistles.
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Re: UPS
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Ever heard of a little thing called a UPS?
Yes, I agree it sounds like ATT is not doing a good job with implementing E911 but even if they weren't you'd still want a UPS on your VoIP box.
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No Subject Given
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foolish hoo-monz
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AT&T is a big clumsy gorilla
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Not surprising
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Amazed
All of the negative opinions about big Telco.... but you use their VoIP service? Very funny...
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Re: Amazed
Huh?
All of the negative opinions about big Telco.... but you use their VoIP service? Very funny...
I'm not allowed to criticize the telcos because I'm a customer? How does that make any sense?
My status as a customer has little to nothing to do with the larger issues raised. I'm curious why you think it should matter one way or the other.
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Re: Amazed
Agreed, they handled it poorly. Of course there is nothing wrong with a customer criticizing a supplier. What is entertaining is that you haven't taken the opportunity to put your money where your mouth is... as suggested by lots of people above.
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Re: Amazed
Besides, my opinions about AT&T are about what the company is doing strategically, which has little to do with the quality of their products.
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No Subject Given
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Former AT&T Internet Attorney says time to go...
I am with Vonage and have been since September 2002. It offers a great many more services than the traditional phone company VOIP offerings. for example Simultainious ringing on up to five lines.
Leave AT&T and give your money to somebody who cares about you.
Best of luck,
Mike
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How about SunRocket?
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Re: How about SunRocket?
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