Who Ya Gonna Call? Not 311.

One great city service is 311 – the all-purpose phone number that connects citizens to all things city of Austin: nonemergency help, information, service requests, and staff in all departments. So this reporter was irked to discover, after switching to AT&T's new heavily marketed U-verse digital phone service, that 311 no longer worked. That added frustration to another pet peeve: I haven't been able to view Channel 6, which televises City Council sessions and other meetings, since switching television service to AT&T. What's the good of a multimillion-dollar civic investment in "transparency" if corporate service providers don't support the services?

Inquiries revealed that the city staff was unaware of the U-verse problem – but they've since hopped on it. City spokeswoman Leslie Schneiweiss said the city is "actively engaging AT&T to see if they will consider providing 311 services to U-verse customers." The city's chief financial officer, Leslie Browder, who oversees the Commun-ications and Technology Management Depart-ment, said all of the major service providers in the Austin area support 311 access, except AT&T U-verse. (Time Warner had a problem at one point but easily fixed it.)

AT&T spokesman Kerry Hibbs noted that "supporting 311 will require significant investment and engineering effort." He also said: "AT&T is in full compliance from a regulatory and legal standpoint regarding 311 service. At present, there is no regulatory obligation to support 'N11' services other than 711 and 911." But what about being a good corporate citizen and supporting 311 because it's the right thing to do for the city and the community? "We are looking at it and hope to provide 311. We definitely hope to be a good corporate citizen," said Hibbs. "We'll get there."

Asked about the problem with Channel 6, Hibbs politely pointed the finger back at City Hall: "We've been working with city officials for about a year on this issue. No schedule has been determined yet. It will depend largely on when the city obtains the funding required to purchase equipment necessary for PEG [public education government] programming. That's a budget question best directed toward city officials." And good for another 311 call.

Meanwhile, U-verse subscribers with municipal questions and service requests can call the city's main phone number, 974-2000. Those who don't get Channel 6 on TV can watch it online – if they have Internet access. For more info, visit the 311 and Channel 6 pages at www.cityofaustin.org.