March 13, 2006
Pulver Proposes Post-Disaster Preparedness
VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver and tech veteran Tom Evslin have submitted a petition to the FCC asking the Commission to require phone companies, or at least telcos that are obligated to offer e911 service, to provide call forwarding and voice mail any time a phone line is out for twelve hours or more.
Most phone companies already provide this service to customers that pay a fee, but as Evslin points out, most of those left homeless and disconnected by Katrina’s wrath typically couldn’t afford these premium voice options. Or as Pulver puts it,
In the wake of Katrina, those who had mobile and VoIP phones could be located quickly. They took their phones with them when they evacuated. They left greetings saying where they were so that, even when their phones weren’t operable, loved ones could be reassured and rescuers could be spared searching for them. Even those who had voice mail and call forwarding as features of their PSTN service could quickly reestablish communication. But, as the tragedy made plain, a large percentage of low income people do not have any mobile phones, VoIP, or even the premium features of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Their numbers became useless once their local lines were inoperable or inaccessible.
With emergency voice mail and call-forwarding, the aimless refugees from national disasters will at least have an electronic home base at which they leave can leave messages, or pick them up.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at March 13, 2006 06:06 PM