Latest in the Rogers debacle – All calls redirected
Posted by: litui in Business, Technology, tags: 911, android, call redirection, dream, e911, htc, magic, rogers, rogers mandatory update, sapphireIt seems that now, after disconnecting data and weeks of harassment of Dream and Magic customers to update their phones due to the 911 issue (which I’ll remind you doesn’t affect those of us who are on unofficial mods with Android 1.6), Rogers has taken their methods to the next level. They’ve begun diverting outbound telephone calls from phones that they still have marked (by whatever means they’re marking them) as non-updated in their systems.
The first report of this today on the XDA-Developers Forum Rogers Mandatory Update thread clearly states that this redirect is, in a spectacle of comic irony, preventing 911 calls as well. As ben.selinger put it [minor punctuation fixes]:
Rogers is rescanning phones again and blacklisting non-1.5 phones. The voice services are then being diverted to Rogers support. Better, they’re diverting 911 calls! When I realized they’d diverted my first call, I promptly hung up and called 911 to see if it would also be diverted. It was.
Later in the thread, and similarly on Twitter, @RogersMary states:
Hi This is Mary with Rogers online communication team. To clarify, this is not so. Safety is always our primary concern and while customers are being directed to Care to ensure they are aware of the bug fix, this in no way impacts their ability to call 911 direct.
Perhaps it hasn’t been completely tested, or if 911 was being redirected it’ll be solved shortly, but I for one am willing believe ben.selinger. I don’t see any real reason why someone would lie about that. Additional confirmation would be useful though. If anyone has encountered this redirect on a call they’ve had to place to 911, please post here.
Fortunately, still running CyanogenMod 1.4.13 with bcrook’s netfix3-dream after having had Rogers perform a “network refresh” back when they were allowing us to, my data still works and I have not had calls redirected. I still, however, get the phone calls and text messages at least once every day telling me to “upgrade”.
This latest move on Rogers’ part is just nonsensical. It’s bad enough that we’ve had our data plans disabled, but now to not even be able to make outbound phone calls? Ridiculous. Yes, we get it Rogers, you take 911 seriously and don’t want to be blamed for a failure to act on your part (in spite of being 4 months late to act), but pissing off your customers is not the way to do it. The fact is that those of us who refuse to downgrade to Rogers/HTC’s 1.5 firmware from our up-to-date, fully functional, and 911-friendly 1.6 and up firmwares are being punished by Rogers for not complying in the campaign to make them look good in the face of 4 months of neglect.
I’m not on board, Rogers.
!
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Ahoi Litui, just to be clear, I’ve updated my original post to make it clear that my intent was not to outright accusing Rogers of diverting 911 calls. I’ve checked my phone logs, and checked them twice to be sure, and my logs confirm that I dialed 911, and I’m quite sure Rogers picked up, and doubly sure that the police didn’t show up at my door.
I still haven’t heard confirmation from anyone, so this may have been an isolated incident (although it’d be awfully suspicious timing for an isolated incident), or a bug on my phone :p (maybe I should’ve upgraded from 1.6 to 1.5).
Now, I’ve heard that Rogers customers are now reporting that Rogers is immediately beginning the conversation by asking if the customer had intended to reach 911. This apparently started a few hours after I believe my 911 call was diverted, and I gave them hell for it. I’ve never heard this greeting, so I’m going on second and third hand information. I’d like to hear confirmation on this new greeting as well.
[...] http://www.litui.net/archives/838 [...]
Good to know. No redirection here yet, but I strongly suspect it’s going to hit at least one friend of mine on the original 1.5 firmware soon.
if the 1.6, cyanogen, is safe, I have no reason to revert the system
has anyone talked with rogers of that specific mod? or any 1.6?
if their solution was to patch a 1.5 rather than convert that is lazy, unsupportive. chance is that HTC created the system for them initially, and rogers is inpotent to order their technicians, developers to provide . they are minimally active, I think that even to patch the system 1.5 roger relied to HTC — though the safe code has been in the new OPEN SOURCE FREE system 1.6 (android that continues to exist freely as developed).
The statement from rogers is this problem happened when Canada recently switched on their e911 ( http://www.iwantmyonepointsix.com/?p=155 ).
Rogers imediately turned to HTC to have them solve their system problems, rather than rogers actively converting their system to the newest with their developer resources. News from service providers in the USA is that they coverted to the safe code in system 1.6. Even better, rogers could collaborate to develop the systems android for their products.
If I was HTC, I would have been bothered, annoyed at the request from rogers to make a patch for what is really an old, inefficient system (1.5). Perhaps that is why I read complaints that the system 1.5 that HTC ‘patched by pluggin in some safe code’ for rogers is the worst for users, HTC wants to deject the parasitic rogers ( post #10 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5499446 ). ‘Patched’ systems typically have minimal changes, chance is in this system there are no improvements, only a few lines of code for e911.
I am only trying to form a story from what i read at various new sites. I will talk with rogers later to accuse them of all their unproductivity, to suggest that they not worsen anything for their users. I want to contiue to use cyanogen mod, rogers should pay the developers at that project even a relatively small money (for rogers) to hire cyanogen developers to put the system in their HTCs (that would include developments), then they may earn a reputation for quality system development and service.
As I implied with the subserviance to HTC, rogers has not actively developed a product to make it theirs, the clients must not have inconvience.
Andrew, please also have a look at my previous write-up for your chronology: http://www.litui.net/archives/796 . =)
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