Phone Hell Blog November Archive

Comcast devastated woman by erasing deceased husbands voice

By BobP at 11/09/08 12:39

Saw this on the Circuit Cellar BBS:

My father passed away two years ago and the one comforting things my mother still had was his voice greeting on her digital answering machine when people called. Although she was reassured everything would remain the same when she switched phone providers to Comcast, her answering machine got switched to voice mail on another phone. After literally hours on hold and numerous calls to Comcast, someone there told her to stick a paperclip in the reset hole on her answering machine and that would fix the problem of not having my dad’s voice as the greeting. This reset everything on the answering machine including the voice greeting and devastated my mother.

Bad New for Rural Telcos.

Jeff Allen, vice president for external relations at FairPoint Communications, describe the the proposed new order by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that is planned to be resolved at the same day of the national presidential election.

He describes the new order as the "relief package" for the two largest telecommunication providers, Verizon and AT&T in which will have a great negative impact on smaller developing carriers operating on rural areas.

Link: Concord Monitor - FCC plan bad for rural cell phone users

Cellphone inventor does not like iPhone

If there is anyone who has the right to complain about what is going on in the mobile telecommunications industry, that would be Martin Cooper, who invented the cellular phone 35 years ago.

Back then, a lot of promise is seen in the industry. Today, are any of these promises fulfilled? Copper thinks not. He complains about the complexity of the devices we use today. What's on top of his list? The Apple iPhone.

Link: Cellphone Inventor Knocks iPhone - Forbes.com

The Great Debate on Network Blocking and Diclosure Policies

The internet has been a reliable tool for everyone these days. From communication, business, management, research, studies, entertainment to information are offered by Internet Service Providers or ISPs for their customers but what if one of this feature is deprived from the users? This is answered through an issue about network blocking and bandwidth restrictions of some ISPs to consumers which can be read here:

Link: Should All ISPs Provide Data on Network Activity? - News and Analysis by PC Magazine