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How Safe is your Toll Free Number?
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New York, NY June 9, 2008 (ICB TOLL FREE NEWS) I first read this
ruling a few months ago, and came to some of the same conclusions
as the writer you will read below. I back-burnered this and waited to
see what would develop; I'm glad to see someone else picking up on
the story (and my conclusions), and the victims of this story pursuing
their rights.
Jeffrey Krauss writes in Broadway Technology website CED that, "On
December 12, 2006, the head of the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which is part of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, filed an emergency
petition at the FCC. It seems that the organization that was using
three toll-free phone numbers – 1-800-SUICIDE, 1-888-SUICIDE and
1-877-SUICIDA – had fallen behind in paying its phone bills. That
organization, the Kristin Brooks Hope Center (KBHC), operates a
suicide prevention hotline service. It routes callers to trained crisis
counselors. The suicide hotlines are actually routing callers to
hundreds of local suicide prevention organizations, based on the
caller’s phone number. Non-profit KBHC began using these toll-free
numbers eight or nine years ago, and obtained a trademark for 1-
800-SUICIDE in 2003. As a non-profit organization, fundraising was
an essential task for KBHC, and these toll-free numbers featured
prominently in the fundraising material.
Previously, KBHC had received funding from SAMHSA, which ended in
2004. Meanwhile, SAMHSA set up a competing suicide hotline, 1-
800-273-TALK."
To be clear, from Krauss' characterization above, the original 1-
800-
SUICIDE hotline was operating as a shared use service, and receiving
funding from government agency SAMHSA.
This government agency liked what it saw and decided to compete
instead with 1-800-SUICIDE.
Krauss continues, "KBHC [also] received funding from the National
Mental Health Association, but that funding ended in 2006. At some
point in 2006, KBHC fell behind in paying its phone bills, owing
$41,000 at the beginning of August. In August 2006, the Secretary of
Health and Human Services sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin
Martin, alerting the FCC that the toll-free numbers might be
disconnected and, if that were to happen, asking the FCC to reassign
the numbers to SAMHSA. He said that if the 1-800-SUICIDE number
were disconnected, unanswered calls would pose a risk to callers in
crisis.
Without KBHC’s permission, the telephone carrier offering the toll-free
service somehow took control of the numbers and might have
threatened to disconnect them, although this is disputed. In late
August, the carrier, now controlling the numbers, reached agreement
with SAMHSA for SAMHSA to operate 1-800-SUICIDE. [Whatever
happened to numbers returning to spare for first-come-first-serve?
]
KBHC filed a complaint against the carrier at the FCC, and the carrier
sued KBHC for breach of contract.
On December 12, SAMHSA filed an emergency petition with the FCC,
asking that the numbers be reassigned to SAMHSA. SAMHSA claimed
that the total call volume for the toll-free lines was approximately
30,000 per month, each one potentially representing a caller in crisis.
It did not disclose the call volume of its competing hotline 1-800-
273-TALK."
Krauss writes that the very same day (!), the FCC issued a public
notice calling for comments on the petition, with comments due in
eight days.
Read the complete article here:
http://www.cedmagazine.com/Article-Capital-Currents-060108.aspx
Opinions expressed above are those of the Source, and not necessarily those of ICB Toll Free News.
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