Katrina VOIP

Tom Evslin takes an idea from Stuart Henshall and runs with it.

Tom wants Bell South to allow anyone who has a phone number in the striken area to reclaim it and turn it over to a VOIP provider who will get it up and running immediately allowing the people to start having some kind of communication system to notify friends and family of their whereabouts and start putting their lives back together.

He also wants to see broadband and shared computers in the shelters immediately.

Those are great ideas and I want to find charities to give to that are working on problems like this that can have a real and immediate impact on people’s lives.

I said yesterday that disasters often have some bright spots. 

A new telecom architecture for the stricken areas would be one for sure.

The fact is a phone number ought to belong to the person who pays for it, not the company who provides it.  We are moving in that direction, but way too slowly.

Maybe this terrible disaster will prompt the FCC to finally understand how important true number portability is.

#VC & Technology