In Case You Needed Yet Another Reason to Ditch Verizon…

…how about this one? They're completely fucking stupid.

Carol, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of making herself or her land a target for vandals, called for help recently when she arrived at some vacant property she owns in east Austin and found her security chain gone.

She grabbed her new Casio G’zOne phone from Verizon Wireless, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911.

…The alarm is not ear-splitting, but it is loud enough to be heard at least several yards away.

Yes, the Amazing Geniuses at Verizon decided it would be a good idea to have all their phones emit an alarm during a 911 call. Because what you want when you're trying to escape from a maniac or make a Good Samaritan call about an assault or call about a possible robbery still in process is something that will not only identify that you're calling the cops, but also convey your exact location.

A million women are stalked annually in the US; 59% of female victims were stalked by an intimate partner; and 81% of women who were stalked by a current/former intimate partner are physically assaulted. That means about 480,000 women a year in the US have reason to call 911 just due to stalking alone. Think any of them have Verizon phones?

Verizon defends the alarm by claiming it's required by the Federal Communications Commission, which the FCC says (surprise) is incorrect.

[T]he FCC said Section 255 of the Telecommunications Code requires that phones let a caller know a 911 call is underway, but does not require an audible alarm. "The Commission has not implemented any rules pursuant to Section 255 that would require the use of any tones concerning 911 calls," a spokesman said.

Huh. But Verizon assures you that the alarm is a useful and wonderful feature.

The tone, indicating that 911 has been dialed, is one of several features designed to make wireless service is accessible and easy to use, especially for those with disabilities.

Yes, what really would have helped out Susy Hendrix is a phone that emitted an alarm when help is called. Yeesh.

Verizon says it hasn't gotten any complaints about the 911 alarm on its new phones, but I imagine that's probably only because people haven't discovered its existence yet. Or perhaps because the people who have are dead.

[Via Ginmar.]