Posted on 11/02/2010 7:21:06 AM PDT by Libloather
Comcast blames automatically dialed pre-election phone calls for massive New England outages
By Associated Press
7:44 a.m. CDT, November 2, 2010
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Telecommunications company Comcast says massive numbers of automatically dialed political telephone calls that caused service outages in New England have dropped off sharply.
The outages came Monday as political campaigns hit the phones to woo voters before Tuesday's midterm elections.
Philadelphia-based Comcast says congestion resulting from the calls Monday night forced it to reroute phone traffic as it tried to identify the carrier whose telephone numbers were generating them.
Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas says the volume of calls dropped precipitously Monday evening, easing the service problems. He says only the New Hampshire area and perhaps parts of Massachusetts appear to have been affected.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party says it lost phone service at local campaign offices at 11 locations around the state beginning Monday afternoon.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
At least it'll give 'em something else to bitch about.
Every ad must play ?
Damn, I'm glad it's over. I saw the “unavailable” on my caller ID and just let the answering machine pick up. But then I had to listen to their drivel, so I starting picking up the phone and immediately hanging up.
How dare they interrupt my Military Channel show on WWI.
It’s probably a division of Comcast that is making the calls and profiting from the election calling that is at issue anyway. Cable companies are phone companies too these days. And phone companies can rake in the dough providing these harassing phone calls.
Every ad must play... I think Ms. O’Donnell in DE has standing to address this issue...
I think there should be a law against using telephones for political, commercial or fund-raising activities. An unsolicited call wanting something or pushing something is an intrusion of privacy and my time. I regard a phone as a private channel of communication for my convenience, not theirs. How many times have you been bothered by a nuisance call while eating dinner or in the bathroom? If I want to hear a commercial, I’ll turn on the radio or TV.
The outage seems to have affected Comcast in Connecticut as well (West Hartford, anyway).
We had no land line phone service for a couple of hours here in NH late yesterday afternoon. It was odd, though. There was a dial tone, but when you tried to call anyone, nothing happened.
That’s what happens when a cable company thinks it can take over the phone business.
Operation Michael, Germany's Last Gamble.
“so I starting picking up the phone and immediately hanging up.”
I don’t answer if I don’t recognize the number, or if the number is blocked. What really tees me off is if I do answer, and immediately hang up, the calls have “seized” my line and I can’t make or receive calls until their message is over, and they disconnect. I’m on 24 hour emergency call, and that kinda cr@p oughta be illegal.
Since you mention WWI, check this out:
I happened to have the tab still open. Photo cache found.
I had that open as well. I read history all the time. Nothing compares to the losses from 1914 - 1919. I add the extra year there because of the flu pandemic that swept Europe in the wake of the war.
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