AT&T puts parental control service on hold over 911 glitch

AT&T Mobility temporarily suspended the use of its new parental control feature due to potential issues around access to 911.
The carrier introduced its Smart Limits feature earlier this month. The service allows parents to set usage limits on their child’s minutes and services, as well as restrictions on the days and times the phone can be used. The Smart Limits feature costs $5 per line per month.
Although the service always allows calls to 911, even when limits are in effect, the carrier said it recently discovered that, in the event a child were to call 911, a return call from a 911 operator would be blocked along with all other calls to the phone.
“We have no indication that this has ever occurred,” said AT&T Mobility spokesman Mark Siegel. Once the company did learn of the issue, however, AT&T suspended the service “so that we could resolve this issue, and of course we apologize for any inconvenience.”
Customers were notified via e-mail of the situation over the weekend, Siegel said. He added that the service has been well-received by customers, and that those who signed up for the service will receive a credit for the time it is unavailable.
“We plan to relaunch it just as soon as possible,” Siegel said. “We’re just as eager to get it back as [customers] are to have it.”
In the meantime, he noted, limits to the mobile Web and to downloads are still working.