Are you from the old school that believes that telephones should be extremely reliable at handling voice calls? If you are frustrated with so many features that you hardly use, you might just want you phone to work. Sometimes phones don’t work because features cause the phone, which is really a computer, to stall or crash or freeze. Perhaps it is not just the phone either. Companies now like to throw as much as they can down your information pipeline: voice, data/internet, television.

But what if all those features cause your voice service to be impaired? Is that acceptable?

Something interesting about U-verse in their terms of service (check out the bold below):

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT AT&T SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR PERSONAL INJURY, PROPERTY DAMAGE, LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF AT&T HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (a) USE OF THE SERVICES (WHICH INCLUDES EQUIPMENT, SOFTWARE, AND INSIDE OR OUTSIDE WIRING), (b) THE PERFORMANCE OR NON-PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICES, (c) THE INSTALLATION, MAINTENANCE, REMOVAL, OR TECHNICAL SUPPORT OF THE SERVICES, EVEN IF SUCH DAMAGE RESULTS FROM THE NEGLIGENCE OR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OF AN AT&T INSTALLER, TECHNICIAN, OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVE, AND/OR (d) ANY INABILITY TO REACH 911 EMERGENCY SERVICES, ANY ALLEGED INTERFERENCE WITH ALARM OR MEDICAL MONITORING SIGNALS, OR ANY FAILURE OF ALARM OR MEDICAL MONITORING SIGNALS TO REACH THEIR INTENDED MONITORING STATIONS ALLEGEDLY AS A RESULT OF THE SERVICES.

Perhaps customers would rather forgo the extras, especially if they make it complex and difficult to enjoy simple pleasures like calling a friend or family member, or the police in an emergency. And what if your neighborhood U-verse crashes your neighborhood phone lines. Does that mean that fire alarm might not get through to the alarm office when that laptop battery you left on your couch ignites while you run out for Chinese food. AT&T isn’t liable if MTV interferes with 9-1-1. Oh, that’s right you can still sue the battery manufacturer.

Video of I-90 crash aftermath showing driver side impact on a Honda sedan by the school bus, followed by departure of a charter bus with University of Wisconsin-Madison students leaving the scene (Video submitted by passerby/VN).

An accident just east of Arlington Heights Road on I-90 killed a man named Hai Qiu, 38, from Rolling Meadows in his car when it collided with a school bus Saturday afternoon about 12:40 p.m. A First Student school bus was carrying students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison — only minor injuries reported from the bus.

A Mid-America charter bus was dispatched to the scene to transfer about twenty students from a German Club that was headed to Chicago for a German Market event. The students were taken off the tollway to a sheltered staging area.

View Larger Map

Illinois State Police have an investigation team on the scene. Hai Qui, the driver of the Honda, apparently lost control of his vehicle after he entered the curved on ramp to the eastbound lanes of I-90 from southbound Arlington Heights Road. Excessive speed and slick roads likely contributed to his vehicle sliding out of control, crossing all lanes into the path of the school bus in the left lane east of the Arlington Heights Road overpass.

Eastbound Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (formerly the Northwest Tollway) was backed up past Route 53 from Arlington Heights Road. Two other minor accidents with minor injuries were reported east and west of the first accident scene about 3:00 p.m. Saturday.