I already effectively have $45/mo unlimited -- because I don't call hardly at all during the day, when my meter runs, and my free nights and weekends begin at 6 pm. So why should I pay an extra $54/mo?
One thing not being considered is that many people struggle with technology like voicemail. So even if the telcos were to grant free voicemail to disaster victims, I wager that a good percentage of those people would not be able to figure out how to use the voicemail system. This is, in part, because voicemail setup is done seldom, even by experienced voicemail users, and requires some training or how-to documentation. This is also, in part, because no two voicemail systems are alike -- to delete a message on my cell phone's voicemail it's 7, but to do it on my work phone's voicemail it's *3.
Finally, after a disaster, how do you validate that a person calling his own home phone number is really that person, and therefore authorized to set up the voicemail account? You wouldn't want it left to chance; some yahoo like me could start dialing numbers in that region and setting up voicemail boxes on other peoples' phones, thus locking them out. Preventing this would involve putting a system in place to validate the users, which would involve at least some additional programming of the voicemail systems and probably a call center.
In other words, even though this sounds like a great idea, its implementation is not trivial.
I used to work for a contractor who provided claims-processing services to Medicare. I had access to gobs of private health information. It was company policy that no data or work product of any sort was to be stored on your local PC -- everything was to be stored on heavily-protected servers. It was also made very difficult to do things such as export large quantities of social security numbers from mainframes to PCs. We didn't allow VPN access to our servers for laptop users either -- when you were working remotely, all you could do was dial in to check your e-mail. All of this frequently slowed down my work and was frustrating and annoying -- but we didn't have problems with data walking out of the building, either.
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True in Indiana
No glasses, no hats in Indiana, either. Nothing that blocks your face or contorts its expression.
Not so hard to figure out.
People like talking about themselves. It's why I fell for this meme.
$45/mo unlimited, effectively
I already effectively have $45/mo unlimited -- because I don't call hardly at all during the day, when my meter runs, and my free nights and weekends begin at 6 pm. So why should I pay an extra $54/mo?
Wait a minute...
Define "very small percentage of people." 3%? Even if it is that small, which I doubt, that's still on the order of a million households.
Disclaimer: Though I'm far from elderly, I have an old set and watch strandard analog broadcast TV. Don't have much use for cable, really.
Usability of your average voicemail system
One thing not being considered is that many people struggle with technology like voicemail. So even if the telcos were to grant free voicemail to disaster victims, I wager that a good percentage of those people would not be able to figure out how to use the voicemail system. This is, in part, because voicemail setup is done seldom, even by experienced voicemail users, and requires some training or how-to documentation. This is also, in part, because no two voicemail systems are alike -- to delete a message on my cell phone's voicemail it's 7, but to do it on my work phone's voicemail it's *3.
Finally, after a disaster, how do you validate that a person calling his own home phone number is really that person, and therefore authorized to set up the voicemail account? You wouldn't want it left to chance; some yahoo like me could start dialing numbers in that region and setting up voicemail boxes on other peoples' phones, thus locking them out. Preventing this would involve putting a system in place to validate the users, which would involve at least some additional programming of the voicemail systems and probably a call center.
In other words, even though this sounds like a great idea, its implementation is not trivial.
jim
Keeping data centralized
I used to work for a contractor who provided claims-processing services to Medicare. I had access to gobs of private health information. It was company policy that no data or work product of any sort was to be stored on your local PC -- everything was to be stored on heavily-protected servers. It was also made very difficult to do things such as export large quantities of social security numbers from mainframes to PCs. We didn't allow VPN access to our servers for laptop users either -- when you were working remotely, all you could do was dial in to check your e-mail. All of this frequently slowed down my work and was frustrating and annoying -- but we didn't have problems with data walking out of the building, either.