Vonage Puts VoIP 911 Caller on Hold, House Burns Down

Posts: 135 · Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 2:43 pm Post subject:

It seems that calling 911 is never a sure thing... from any phone:

911 calls not answered as operators take breaks together

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 24, 2006 Posts: 2

This is the scariest part of all:

Branham, 70, said he was alone and getting weak, so he called neighbors and his daughter ended up taking him to the hospital. He said 911 operators later denied that he called, but a review of their recording equipment showed he did.

Okay, that's one call out of probably millions per week, month? I wonder what percentage of calls nationwide go ignored. How many deaths could be attributed? Scary man, scary.

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 09, 2005 Posts: 19

From personal experience, landline 911 response is problematic in some areas.
I called 911 for various, mostly violent crime type calls in Philadelphia. I've had either non-commital responses to abusive responses. This declined after a media firestorm over a kid being beaten to death with baseball bats on a church steps in the Foxchase section of the city while 911 operators went above and beyond the call of obnoxious and refused to forward calls until long after the kid was dead. The call tapes were aired and while the city populace was unsurprised, were outraged.
My usual call ended up with: Nevermind, I'll take care of it the way the Army trained me to. For some reason a car was immediately dispatched...
There was one law in my immediate neighborhood: Mine. Call 911 and get no response as our district is the disciplinary district. Those who were on their way out got transferred there. 911 was slightly improved after the Foxchase incident, but the police response was lackluster to non-exsistant (reported as unfounded calls while no police car was seen for a three block radius per lookouts posted to flag the officer to the appropriate location).
I shudder to think of what the place turned into since I was sent to the Middle East (where there are far less firefights)...

Posts: 56 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 15, 2006 Posts: 56

ya that fire thing is kinda scary. It hits home for me because i live in the same town, and live not that far from where that happened. And the local phone company at that address would have been qwest. VOIP comes with its risks. But I carry my cell on me 24/7 so im ready for something like that.

Posts: 26 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 26

This situation is pitiful and no one would want to trade places with the real victim. However, the problem is more complex than drawing battle lines as to whether Vonage or some land line provider is somehow at fault.

There have been a handful of Federal mandates placing various burdens on VOIP providers, but the Feds have done little to clear the way for implementation or requiring a substantive level of cooperation among those various entities in the service chain. There is no doubt that the telecommunications industry has expressed a deal of resentment towards competitors in the VOIP industry. Porting numbers and 911 service may just be the tip of the iceberg. There is no way it takes your old phone company 20 days to port a number except that they want it to take 20 days or more. Likewise there is no reason it should take unreasonable periods of time to get a 911 call through except that there is inadequacy in forcing a level of cooperation to make it happen.

When VOIP providers have to rely on traditional telecommunications providers to cooperate in implementing the 911 mandate the Feds have to make sure the VOIP providers have a clear path to accomplishing this. It isn't enough for the Feds to just mandate these things. They are going to have to create adequate specifications that eliminate roadblocks to cooperation between entities and they are going to have to make it painful for those who can't manage complying with the spirit of these mandates.

I expect that this house burning issue will be handled through the civil courts and there will be plenty of blame handed out. However, there needs to be follow through at the Federal level that doesn't leave room for games at the expense of consumers who may ultimately be victims.

Posts: 73 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 19, 2006 Posts: 73

I am sure there was something wrong with the combo Vonage and 911 system... however I was always taught and my children were taught way back in Kindergarted.. if you're on fire - stop, drop and roll.
If you smell smoke... get out of the house, get to a neighbors and THEN call the fire dept. (or maybe his neighbor has Vonage?)

Posts: 425 · Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:05 pm Post subject:

My question is: How did we survive before 9-1-1? With the
use of cell-phones, which do not give a true location, wonder how long before people go back to dialing their local servicing agency instead of 9-1-1?

Posts: 73 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 19, 2006 Posts: 73

Actually I think part of the advantage of using 911 instead of your local servicing agency was that way back in the old days (and in many rural areas), we had separate numbers for each crew..
ie you had to call the fire dept at number xxx-xxxx
and police were yyy-yyyy
and of course an ambulance was zzz-zzzz.
too many numbers to remember in a very stressful situation and too difficult to look up in the phone book (if you can find your phone book) during the situation.

Posts: 46 · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 1:39 pm Post subject:

Not to sound anal or like a nerd or anything, but I have all of the local emergency numbers written down next to each phone. Actually, on a sticker on each phone. (Very nerdy huh?). I also have them saved in my cell phone. It took all of maybe ten minutes to accomplish this one lazy Sunday afternoon. I may never need it, but it's there if I do. People need to take responsibility for protecting themselves. If 911 or e911 works, then that's just redundant icing on the cake.

Posts: 338 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 338

My town (not in sticksville or anything like that) did not get 911 until the mid-90s. Up until then, every couple of months, the New Jersey Bell bill came with stickers to put on your phones and write in the police, fire, and rescue squad numbers. Even today, I call the police directly when there is an emergency (mainly because all the times I've had to call 911 the call wasn't completed).