Yesterday the FCC Commissioner said this...

Posts: 40 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 40

Martlet wrote:

I didn't even have a home phone until I got Voip. Should they force me to in case I needed to dial 911?

Let it be my decision.

Having 911 service available to you isnt just for you.
It is for anyone that comes near your property. (guests, neighbors, delivery people, garbage collector, etc etc). You put people other than yourself at risk by not having 911 service.

Posts: 129 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:28 am Post subject:

Martlet wrote:

I disagree. It's just one more thing for the government to meddle with. I didn't even have a home phone until I got Voip. Should they force me to in case I needed to dial 911?

Let it be my decision.

911 is on a cellphone and most landline phones by default. You cannot disengage 911 service even if you wanted to. Voip should play by the same rules. 911 has to do with public safety, not government intervention. Telephones are expected to have such functionality.

I don't understand why Voip should somehow be different than landline phones. And why in the world would you NOT want to have 911? What does it hurt? It can only help.

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:06 am Post subject:

I'm surprised by this statement:
"It is simply unacceptable that a child can pick up a phone and dial 9-1-1 to get the police in an emergency and instead she gets a recording saying that 9-1-1 is not available."
no it isn't. if anything blame the user who signed up for Vonage and completely failed to communicate any type of instruction, not to mention completely missed the 911 setup as mention in another post. typical case of PBKAC and now oh heaven forbid we're all going to die because of this so let's get big brother involved. I'm also surprised by the amount of people dying to pay more on their bills. of course, it's all personal opinion and preference. hopefully the fcc will keep the heck out of it (too late) and Vonage will keep their current psap routing and offer pay e911 (a la packet Cool

in their markets soon.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:14 am Post subject:

Disturbed wrote:

Voip should play by the same rules. 911 has to do with public safety, not government intervention. Telephones are expected to have such functionality.

If it is the case that this is a "public safety issue" then 911 should be paid for from the general fund and not charged per telephone line. As it stands it is a government mandated feature because governments were regulating telecommunication companies as monopolies.

That being said, regular ordinary people are replacing their POTS line with Voip because of advertising campaigns. Regular ordinary people assume that 911 is a standard part of phone service and expect it to work by default. In my opinion the argument to be made here is that Vonage is not providing "phone" service as understood by regular ordinary people.

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:24 am Post subject:

let the buyer beware. it's not vonage's job to hold every person's hand that calls to sign up for service. obviously I'm very much against this whole issue, but perhaps Vonage could extend the trial to 30 days instead of 14, or make the 14 days start once your device registers on their servers (as opposed to the day you order). that would give a person more time to evaluate the service and find things out.
either way, this will all probably be a moot point soon.

Posts: 40 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 40

reebok wrote:

let the buyer beware.

its not only the buyer that needs to beware of somebody who does not have [E]911 service.

again, your 911 service is not only for *you*.

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:37 am Post subject:

sure it is, it's in my house and therefore my responsibility to advise other potential users. it's not my responsibility to have 911 service. oh but since it's "not only for me" I better make sure I keep a pots line in my house for the rest of the world.

Posts: 40 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 40

Think about it for a minute.

911 is for anyone that comes near your property. (guests, neighbors, delivery people, garbage collector, etc etc). You put people other than yourself at risk by not having 911 service.

Again, your 911 service is not only for you. Regardless of whether it is your house or not.

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 11, 2005 Posts: 22

i don't understand why it's so difficult for Vonage to setup 911 like a call forwarding feature. So if you dial 911... it AUTOMATICALLY gets forwarded to your LOCAL police (which you or they program) and then your caller ID info also gets sent. With that, the police at least have SOME info to track you down.

Currently, Vonage 911 goes to the inappropriate emergency center (in my case, the state police... i tested it) and they get NO info, no number, no address. That is unacceptable.

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:52 am Post subject:

think about it for a minute, what about the people who disconnected at the nid and don't have a cell phone? sweet fancy moses, arrest them for that crime against humanity. not to mention people who don't have phones at all. good gosh I better not go outside any more lest I be near someone without 911 service.
911 can be used for others, but my phone is not "for" them, and no one should expect anyone else to have it, or to be able to use it when they need it.
anyway, we obviously disagree, and since Vonage has a form of 911 access, it's really a moot point besides those who don't read or pay attention to what they sign up for.