“…Oh Please Not Now!”, Fixed

Well we covered this here. Verizon has finally gotten around to addressing the issue.

Why would Verizon have its phones do this? It turns out it’s how the company interpreted an FCC regulation to make wireless phones accessible to users with disabilities.

“So if someone who did call 911 was disabled, they would actually know that the calls did go through, if they were visually impaired and the tone would go off. And that was the intent of it,” said Georgia Taylor with Verizon.

After hearing about the Austin case, Verizon decided to change its policy. Some time later this year, the phones it sells will be reprogrammed.

“The default will be off. So then you can turn it to vibrate if you want that or you can have the tone as well,” Taylor said.

The change will leave the customers in charge of the 911 tone option, Taylor said.

Verizon points out correctly that cell phones have helped many people caught in domestic violence situations. The company says before the incident in Texas, not a single customer had complained about the 911 tone feature.

Verizon will make the the change to the new cell phones it sells some time this summer. But as for the millions of phones the company has already sold, they cannot be changed. Even if the phone is set on vibrate, it will still ring when you call 911.

It will be programmable like it should have been all along. My only question is why VZ stood there originally and said that this was required by law. If that is the case then why are you changing now? It never was a lawful requirement, that’s why.

Full story here.