Former AT&T exec seeking new rule
By Bruce Alpert
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
WASHINGTON — A former AT&T executive is asking the Federal Communications Commission to require phone companies to provide free voice mail service at times of major disasters like Katrina.
After Katrina, tens of thousands of people endured the emotional trauma of not knowing where loved ones were, or even if they were alive, Tom Evslin, the former phone company executive, said in his petition to the FCC.
First responders, he said, spent significant time searching for people who had already made it safely out of their homes — time that could have been better used rescuing those stranded on rooftops in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities.
According to Evslin, those problems could have been averted had people been given access to voice mail.
Even if their phone service was disrupted, as occurred across the New Orleans area after Katrina struck, callers could still access their voice mail, Evslin said. That would enable people who left their homes to call a toll-free number, type in their home phone numbers and passwords and then leave a voice mail greeting that informed callers that they were safe and where they were staying.
In turn, they could access messages from friends and family.
Many people already pay extra for such voice-mail service, or get it as part of a package of services, he said. The systems are usually set up in centralized locations, and ideally should be far away from the location of most of the provider’s customers, Evslin said.
Many people, particularly those without cell phones, either don’t have voice-mail service for their wire-line phone, or rely on separate answering machines or phones with answering machines built in. They are useless when phone service is disrupted.
Evslin, who said he has left the phone business to become a novelist, said that since most phone companies already have voice mail networks, the cost of providing the service for free during emergencies should be rather modest. He pegged the costs at about one cent per subscriber. The savings to nonprofit agencies and first responders would be substantial, he said.
“Most importantly, if the FCC grants this petition, evacuees will quickly be locatable, evacuations will meet less resistance and relief and rescue workers can concentrate on those truly in danger,” Evslin said. Even people who might know about the service, or how to get it started, could easily be helped by officials at shelters. That would take far less time than helping people locate friends and family who, in the case of Katrina, were dispersed to communities in 50 states.
BellSouth spokesman Bill McCloskey said the company offered free voice mail during Katrina.
AT&T opposed the petition for free voice mail service, saying that it needs more information about the costs associated with such a mandate, and that it’s possible that in a disaster affecting a large geographic area, the platform supporting voice mail service could be damaged along with the rest of the provider’s network.
Evslin said providers ought to be prudent enough to locate voice mail networks far from most of their customers to ensure they remain in operation during disasters and, if they aren’t, the FCC ought to investigate.
According to Evslin, even companies that provide services for free in emergencies should be required to publicize their availability at shelters and through the media.
The FCC has not announced when it will rule on Evslin’s petition.