[Infowarrior] - AT&T Relents, Drops Paging Instructions from Voicemail

[Richard Forno]

AT&T Relents, Drops Paging Instructions from Voicemail
I know the big news today is supposed to be Steve Jobs returning to  
the stage at Apple’s iPod announcements and all. But for me, the big  
news is this: As of today, AT&T has eliminated the most egregious  
portion of its mandatory, time-wasting voicemail instructions recording.

You know that blast from 1975? The part that says, “To page this  
person, press five now”? It’s gone. Nationwide. Because of you, dear  
readers, and all the complaints you’ve filed in the last five weeks.

This is the first victory in our “Take Back the Beep” campaign. That’s  
my crusade to pressure the cell carriers to eliminate those  
ridiculous, mandatory, airtime-eating, life-wasting recordings.

The wheels of huge corporations usually turn very slowly, but AT&T  
managed to discuss, process and implement this change in just five  
weeks.

Now, the truth is, the stupid recording isn’t completely gone. When  
you call an AT&T phone, you still hear “At the tone, please record  
your message. When you are finished recording, press pound. You may  
then leave a callback number.” But the whole thing is only 8 seconds  
long, down from 12 or 15.

Wheels are turning at T-Mobile on this issue. Sprint already lets you  
eliminate the entire recording. Verizon, characteristically, refuses  
to respond.

But AT&T gets the credit for being the first to take a small,  
important step toward sanity.



http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/att-relents-drops-paging-instructions-from-voicemail/