Two Apologies …
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
First, about the Writers on Call free teleclass last night.
Some of you may have tried to call in, but could not get through (as I and the moderators could not).
This was due to the fact that Sprint, Cingular and perhaps some other phone providers have been blocking access to certain telephone bridge lines. Here’s what freeconferencecall.com reported in a newsletter the other day:
“For now, we can tell you that a Cingular spokesperson has gone on record and stated that their terms of service gives them the right to block any number they wish and also said that AT&T’s wireless service is ‘between one person and another person, not between one person and many.’ Cingular and Sprint have chosen to block service to our shared customers regardless of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules and regulations. Neither carrier has ever directly complained, filed suit or even contacted FreeConferenceCall. The upshot is that carriers are basically telling you that a cell phone is not intended for use on conference calls of any type.” (For more information, check out the freeconferencecall.com blog.)
Does this get you as angry as it does me? I mean, a telephone company to which I pay fees to make phone calls is telling me I can’t call certain numbers? By the way, I’ve had trouble calling in to other conference lines from my land-line phone, so I’m not sure it’s just a mobile phone issue. (I use AT&T, which owns Cingular. I won’t use them for long, though, if this is in fact what they’re doing.)
Even though it’s not my fault, I apologize to whoever had trouble getting on the call I advertised on this blog yesterday. Be assured that Writers on Call will offer another free call soon. If you signed up, you’ll receive an email (maybe. Email is another issue, isn’t it?).
Second apology–I’ve heard from some people saying they can’t get through to the Simpleology book promotion page. All I can say is–keep trying! It’s got to be a good sign for Mark Joyner that his Web server is overloaded.