Cellular phone users, beware!

Subject: Cellular phone users, beware!
From: Peggy Thompson <Peggy_Thompson -at- CCMAIL -dot- OSTI -dot- GOV>
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 10:00:00 -0400

Date: Wed, 01 Mar 1995 09:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Peggy_Thompson -at- ccmail -dot- osti -dot- gov
Subject: for Ostivision
To: Meg_Jared -at- ccmail -dot- osti -dot- gov
MIME-version: 1.0
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN


Pardon me, please, for digressing from the usual list topics,
but I think the following is very important. (And it DOES
concern communication.) Hastily scrawled for an internal
newsletter, so please don't edit me! Pass it on.


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Don't Take 911 Access Off Cellular!
--Peggy Thompson


Are you one of the numerous cellular phone owners (up to half of
all owners) who purchased a car phone for security?

You might not be as safe as you think. Newspaper reports
indicate that cellular phone companies are increasingly blocking
911 calls from non-subscribers--whose use of cellular services
constitutes fraud--and from subscribers dialing outside their
contracted roaming area.

What does this mean if you are a legitimate subscriber calling
for emergency assistance outside the area covered by your
roaming agreement? Your emergency call could either be refused
or routed through a third party that asks for your credit card
and billing information.

Think about it: you are in a jam sufficient to warrant emergency
assistance--perhaps even a life-or-death situation--and you are
fumbling for your credit card. Or worse, your call is refused!
The really annoying thing about emergencies is that they are
unpredictable--how could you ever be certain your emergency
would occur only in your roaming area?

It all stems from a proposal under consideration by the FCC that
requires cellular providers to grant 911 access only to "service
initialized" users and "subscribed-to" roamers. The fear is that
under the proposed rule, cellular companies could use such
wording to justify blocking 911 calls from non-subscribers,
which could in turn jeopardize subscribers.

Isn't is reasonable to expect that on public airwaves, the least
cellular companies can provide in exchange for their profits is
unrestricted access to what may be lifesaving calls?

I urge cellular phone subscribers to call their providers and
learn the company's position on the proposal before the FCC and
how the company would handle 911 calls under a ruling.

If you are paying the expense of cellular subscription for
emergency purposes only, you might remind your provider that for
a one-time outlay of about sixty bucks, you can get an emergency
band CB radio monitored by the highway patrol. That's not as
good as 911 access by phone, but it might soon be a heck of a
lot more than the cellular phone providers can offer.


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