Jitterbug issues recall to fix emergency calling in "no service" areas

by Chris Ziegler posted May 27th 2009 at 7:54AM

When we first saw this, our immediate reaction was, "trust us, Jitterbug, we appreciate your extra-mile attitude here, but it's not your fault that 911 doesn't work without a signal." Turns out that's not quite the issue, though -- in reality, Jitterbug is recalling phones sold after March 1 of last year because they maybe be unable to place calls to 911 in areas where the company doesn't have MVNO or roaming agreements in place. In other words, the phone is showing "no service," but you've still got a signal -- and whenever a phone's got a signal, it should be able to dial the cops. Jitterbug is offering affected customers the option either of taking their handset into a local Samsung service center or mailing it in, at which point a software update will be applied. Too bad these things don't do firmware updates over the air, isn't it?

[Via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: Handsets, Software, Samsung, MVNOs

Tags: 911, emergency, emergency calling, emergency calls, EmergencyCalling, EmergencyCalls, jitterbug, recall, samsung, software, update

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

crow610 @ May 27th 2009 1:59PM

it's ok if there's no service, as long as it can play Crysis

Neutral

gray @ May 27th 2009 2:03PM

EPIC FAIL!
GET YOUR PLMN DUCKS IN A ROW

Neutral

Steve.G @ May 27th 2009 3:55PM

Or grandma can just download a copy of Samsung PST and some leaked firmware bins off her favorite torrent tracker. Then she could flash it at home.

Grandma is l337

Highly Ranked

Sue Weaver @ May 27th 2009 11:50PM

We recently learned that Jitterbug phones shipped to customers between March 2008 and April 16th of 2009 had an issue with the handset software that might prevent 911 calls from being completed in certain areas where preferred coverage – meaning normal Jitterbug carrier support – is not available. These would be remote areas that would not have the normal coverage. Less than one hundredth of one percent of Jitterbug customers are in the known potentially affected areas. But, just to be safe, we are upgrading this software for 160,000 of our handsets. As always, Jitterbug’s primary concern is for the safety and security of our customers, and we are going that extra mile to ensure we deliver outstanding customer care.

Sue Weaver
VP, Customer Service
Jitterbug