Given that 90% of calls to online brokers are usually related to customers simply checking their total position after some kind of software, hardware or ISP problem, IB and others should add an automated phone service that allows customers to call in, enter their account details and password and get a real time position report. It would work just like phone banking does. You could even give customers a 'close all positions at market' option. This way, the actual customer service staff would have to deal with a lot less calls and during busy periods or widespread internet outages, many customers would be able to get out of their positions quickly without long delays. Runningbear
Before the advent of the net, a number of brokers had touch-tone trading, and some kept it around for a while. My experience trying to use it at Waterhouse was that when the web interface went down, so did the TT system :-(