Texas suing Vonage over 911 calls

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 20, 2005 Posts: 3

Just a quick bit of information. I was speaking with our 911 director the other day and we discusses this lawsuit. It does matter that Vonage does not pay the 911 regulatory fees. These fees pay for salaries and equipment upgrades. I honestly don't think many customers would mind this charge, if E911 was made available. We also discusses the RBOC's role in the whole 911 ordeal nationwide and most readers here would surprised that Phone Companies really have no say in the issue. For instance. We use T-1 leased by Bellsouth that carries our 5, 911 lines and 4 administrative lines. These lines pass into Bellsouth's leased equipment, move to the CAD system which takes the query from Intrado and pinpoints the location on an ArcView mapping system at the same time the address and phone number is displayed to the dispatcher. This all takes about 3 seconds.

Now what may surprise the general public is that, there is nothing special about these 911 lines. In my case Vonage could very easily have their calls routed to them, but they have simply never contacted our 911 director for the phone numbers. Sure the non-emergency lines are publicly available and most of the time listed in the yellow pages. 911 numbers are not. But in the end, after all the fancy equipment, its just a phone line. Bellsouth has no right to it at all. We just lease the equipment from them, but that could have been done through numerous other agencies as well. In the old days we used regular phones, even a cheap cordless in the event a bathroom break was needed.. Eek

Nothing fancy. Anyways thats it for tonight.

Thanks

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 24, 2005 Posts: 22

Randalllind wrote:

If you sign up for 911 and Vonage fails to connect you then they should be sued.

E-911 or not they ask people to sign up for 911 under account information so if you did and Vonage doesn't connect you then that is lieing to customers.

it doesn't say signup for 911 and we may connect you.

You do not need to test 911 dialing. If you have received an email confirmation from Vonage stating that your 911 dialing has been activated, then 911 dialing will work should you ever need it. If you do choose to test 911 Dialing, please test it only one time. When you call, you must inform the emergency response personnel that it is not an emergency and that you are testing your alternative emergency service to make sure it's working. If they ask why you are testing the system, explain that you are using an Internet phone service that operates differently than the traditional phone company. If the PSAP operator tells you to dial another number, please inform Vonage Customer Care at 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357) or 1-732-650-6699.

When I dial 911 I get the 911 non-emergency number which doesn't have my name, number or address so the guy said if I am having an heart attack or can't speak I will die before they get to me.

Also calling on a non-emergency number means I am last in line for help according to the guy that picked up 911 when I called.

Vonage 911 is a joke. Vonage lies when they say they care about customers they should get they butt in gear and get E-911 up and working.

The CEO doesn't want to set up E-911 because it will take away from profits if I understand his 5 points. Vonage will only set up E-911 when force by law.

It's not all on Vonage here ... the states themselves all have different laws regarding 911 and e911 service ... i'm not blaming the other phone companies ... they were around when e911 was started and i'm sure the fees due help pay for saleries, upgrades ... but i'm pretty sure about 1/4 of my paycheck goes for those things as well ... imagine a police officer giving you a bill after arresting a burgler in your house.

The truth is it's going to take concessions on both sides. As Voip becomes more and more popular, consumers are going to demand a higher standard for this phone service because they're using it as a primary line. The states will have to allow it and the municipalities as well. This lawsuit, if nothing else, will bring this to light. The fact that its cutting into profit margins, however, is ridiculous and doesn't even merit a response in my opinion.

Posts: 126 · Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2005 10:09 pm Post subject:

ToddlerTN wrote:

SaltAquatics wrote:

Actually I loved Fahrenheit 9/11.

LOL, why does that not surprise me?

Posts: 78 · Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2005 10:32 pm Post subject: Vonage 911 policy in TOS

The Texas AG is just as big a publicity hound idiot as RI's AG and his opposition to LNG terminals in RI.

In the Texas case, I cannot understand how the AG could even file because Vonage clearly states what 911 will and will not do. To my knowledge RI is that only state that E-911 actually plays nicely with Vonage and it isn't a technical issue.

Instead it is a regulatory issue, and more to the point a recovery fee based issue. You see, in RI the E-911 PSAP is paid for by the state, and the circuit based carriers pass through a fee for what is essentially making the database of streets, etc. available to RI.

So in this case, RI E-911 stepped up and let Vonage connect because for all the things our legislature and PUC screw up, this is one thing they did right. They didn't give the dominant Bell company complete control over E-911.

But it is clear that the incument Bell companies, and I call them Bell companies because they operate straight from the Ma Bell playbook, are deliberately trying to kill Voip by denying it access to critical features like E-911. I do wish the legal team at Vonage makes this little fact abundantly clear during the discovery phase of the Texas trials and make it at public as possible.

I blame the Bells for their own demise. If they had been more flexible instead of playing by tariff all these years I might be willing to cut them some slack. But as with AT&T, they didn't know how to not manage as a monopoly. BTW, for those who may not know it, Dilbert creator Scott Adams worked for Pacific Bell. That's where he got most of the inspiration for the the comic strip, even to this day.

Posts: 4 · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:07 am Post subject: Not Vonage, but still..

Not sure if any of you had heard this, but in a 3 week span, Time Warner's digital phone service here in central new york sent 911 emergency paramedics to the wrong township. The address was the same, just not the town they were in. Nothing bad happened to the people who called, but just think what could have been.

Could have been CS not entering the right info in, or on the outskirts of towns around here, you could have an town "a" phone number and a town "b" address.... Very confusing...

Posts: 2251 · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:12 am Post subject: Re: Not Vonage, but still..

amazz20 wrote:

Not sure if any of you had heard this, but in a 3 week span, Time Warner's digital phone service here in central new york sent 911 emergency paramedics to the wrong township. The address was the same, just not the town they were in. Nothing bad happened to the people who called, but just think what could have been.

Could have been CS not entering the right info in, or on the outskirts of towns around here, you could have an town "a" phone number and a town "b" address.... Very confusing...

In Onondaga County?

Posts: 4 · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:29 am Post subject:

Well, I know the main center is in Syracuse. But, I believe the incidents happened with towns to the north and north east of Onondaga county. Since the area that the Syracuse office covers is very vast, it is not much of a surprise that something like this would happen.

I live 30 minutes from Towns that I never knew existed until a few years ago.

Posts: 2251 · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:42 am Post subject:

amazz20 wrote:

Well, I know the main center is in Syracuse. But, I believe the incidents happened with towns to the north and north east of Onondaga county. Since the area that the Syracuse office covers is very vast, it is not much of a surprise that something like this would happen.

I live 30 minutes from Towns that I never knew existed until a few years ago.

Yes, I know where the center is, about 2 miles from where I grew up on Onondaga Hill. Interesting.

Posts: 4 · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:12 am Post subject:

Sorry, I tried to look up the incidents on the local news sites. They really do not have any kind of archived news, even searches for just 911 showed only the last month of anything that had to do with 911...

It happened more than a month ago I believe.

Posts: 41 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 41

Judge greer is elected in to office by the way. He is a woman hater if you look in to his ruleing he votes against women most of the time.