Deadline? I Don't Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

from the someone-get-the-FCC-some-help dept

Tue, Sep 27th 2005 1:38pm — Mike Masnick

It would appear that the FCC is a bit of a pushover when it comes to its own arbitrary and pointless deadlines. You may recall that they put in place a somewhat random deadline requiring all VoIP providers to get their subscribers to check a box saying that they understood that VoIP 911 didn't work the way regular 911 worked. For anyone who didn't check that box, the VoIP providers would be forced to cut them off from service... except (irony alert) from calling 911. The original deadline for such notifications was at the end of July. But, when it looked like a lot of people were about to be cut off for no good reason, the FCC pushed it back a month. At the end of August? Same thing. The line in the sand was pushed back to the end of this month. You may have noticed that we're now reaching the end of September, and with the deadline fast approaching, it turns out that it's been pushed back one more month. Now VoIP providers have until Halloween before before taking away service. Of course, it's not that long after October 31st when VoIP providers will be required to provide functional E911 service anyway -- so the deadline has now become almost completely useless. Of course, it's the right move not to be cutting people off, but it makes you wonder why the FCC bothered to have a deadline in the first place?

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8 Comments

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Rikko, 27 Sep 2005 @ 2:04pm

It helps you achieve goals
You guys have until the end of the week to crown me Emperor of Earth.
This deadline may be subject to change.
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daniel duende, 27 Sep 2005 @ 2:05pm

that's something i'm used to...
Here in Brasil we are quite used to those "flying deadlines". First of all, we are culturally inept to take deadlines seriously. That seems to drive most north-americans that come here crazy, but it's not that bad after you get used to it (and free of deadline-worries too). Second, when someone ever GIVES a deadline to something, we all know that both the "deadliner" and the "deadlined" know that it is always a very flexible one. Take the Revenue Tax declaration we have to deliver to the government every year... it's normal deadline is the end of march, but i ALWAYS postpone mine until april because we all know that they'll not close the process before the bulk of declarations are sent (by the end of may, usually).

Deadlines are a joke here. Maybe the people at FCC are "culturally inadequate" to the US, but they are doing the "normal brazilian aproach to deadlines". :)

Understand... we LIKE it this way here. :)
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2006 @ 9:59am
  
  Re: that's something i'm used to...
  sounds like paridise. I hate the US obsession with deadlines.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2005 @ 6:06pm

No Subject Given
Fits the practice for deadlines they established with HDTV.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Sep 2005 @ 12:12am

No Subject Given
Seems like what they're trying to do in various casees is to light a fire under the companies/organizations rear ends to get something done quickly, but they probably knew from the start that it would turn out this way.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2008 @ 10:23am

your gay
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2008 @ 10:24am

fuck you bitches
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2008 @ 10:24am

bitch
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