Vonage's 911 Announcement

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:41 pm Post subject:

holocron wrote:

This whole situation is, IMO, blown out of proportion.

If people want "traditional" 911 as they have been conditioned to expect, then they should keep a POTS line.

If the governement were serious about 911 being available to everyone, then it would be a public service. And with this, would be the ability for anyone to plug in a phone and reach 911--regardless of if phone service is active on the line or not.

If this were the case, VoIP providers could easily include a seperate 911 line jack on the adapter. This would be a "land line" that has 911 calling on it, regardless of service or not, as noted above. Dial 911 on the phone connected to the adapter and it connections via the land line to the 911.

Take 911, and the funding for 911, out of the hands of the telecos.

Done.

That's an interesting idea. I like that. A municipal "subchannel" running on the carrier that detects 911 and routes the call directly to a local 911 operator, bypassing the telco, and not paid for by the telco.

Of course, it would be a heluva lot easier if all the 911 centers were required to run the same equipment, or at least receive the same data over the line, when answering. That way, Vonage could just always send the same packet to everyone, containing E911 data in a standardized format (an "extended caller ID", containing name and address in addition to phone #, if you will). You know, kinda how 911 was originally supposed to work. Wink

Posts: 400 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: May 05, 2005 Posts: 400

holocron wrote:

This whole situation is, IMO, blown out of proportion.

If people want "traditional" 911 as they have been conditioned to expect, then they should keep a POTS line.

If the governement were serious about 911 being available to everyone, then it would be a public service. And with this, would be the ability for anyone to plug in a phone and reach 911--regardless of if phone service is active on the line or not.

If this were the case, VoIP providers could easily include a seperate 911 line jack on the adapter. This would be a "land line" that has 911 calling on it, regardless of service or not, as noted above. Dial 911 on the phone connected to the adapter and it connections via the land line to the 911.

Take 911, and the funding for 911, out of the hands of the telecos.

Done.

Boy if it were only that easy!

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:45 pm Post subject:

holocron wrote:

This whole situation is, IMO, blown out of proportion.

If people want "traditional" 911 as they have been conditioned to expect, then they should keep a POTS line.

I'll gladly take my Vonage line over my POTS line when it comes to reliability. My POTS line has been down for 16 days this year, Vonage has been down less than an hour from what I've seen. Good thing I didn't have a need to call 911 on my POTS line during those times, otherwise I would have been screwed.

POTS does NOT equal reliability, despite what most people may think.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:52 pm Post subject:

Oh, and as to the "separate line for 911" idea that was proposed earlier...

Many areas DO require the Telco to maintain a dial tone, and support 911 routing with address. My town in Maine is not one of them, as the wires coming into my house did not have a dial tone when I moved here (the previous tenants had dropped landline service years ago and went 100% cell), so it wouldn't work for me, but...

In an area where you get dialtone on an "unactivated" line, just take an old phone and plug it into a "safe" location in the house, hooked up to the old line. Paint the phone bright red, and put 911 on all the speed-dials. Need to call 911? There ya go. One button calling. And the Vonage line is a semi-functional backup if you can't make it to the "bat phone".

Posts: 605 · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:56 pm Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

Oh, and as to the "separate line for 911" idea that was proposed earlier...

Many areas DO require the Telco to maintain a dial tone, and support 911 routing with address. My town in Maine is not one of them, as the wires coming into my house did not have a dial tone when I moved here (the previous tenants had dropped landline service years ago and went 100% cell), so it wouldn't work for me, but...

In an area where you get dialtone on an "unactivated" line, just take an old phone and plug it into a "safe" location in the house, hooked up to the old line. Paint the phone bright red, and put 911 on all the speed-dials. Need to call 911? There ya go. One button calling. And the Vonage line is a semi-functional backup if you can't make it to the "bat phone".

Been wanting to do that. I just cannot remember how I have everything wired up and I dont want to fry my router Smile

That is on my list of things to do one of these days.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:14 pm Post subject:

KDWycha wrote:

Been wanting to do that. I just cannot remember how I have everything wired up and I dont want to fry my router Smile

That is on my list of things to do one of these days.

Yes, letting the smoke out is bad. Smile

Posts: 276 · Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 4:35 pm Post subject:

holocron wrote:

This whole situation is, IMO, blown out of proportion.

If people want "traditional" 911 as they have been conditioned to expect, then they should keep a POTS line.

Well, yes, you're right - they should. Unless.... Vonage put out a big marketing press release "conditioning them to expect" by promising:

Quote:

Vonage currently offers E911 or enhanced 911 throughout the U.S., by sending the call, along with the customer's address and phone number, to the proper local emergency call center based on the caller's street address. The caller's information is then displayed on the dispatcher's screen whenever they dial the digits 9-1-1 from a Vonage phone.

Oh yeah - that's EXACTLY what they just did - nevermind.....

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 17, 2005 Posts: 24

Called 933 and a recorded message told me 911 was activated. also not to call 911 to test.
Looking good in Springfield, Ma.

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 9:08 pm Post subject:

the same thing it's said for everyone for months? ok...

Posts: 10 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 20, 2005 Posts: 10

Here's a press release with 80 new counties named; these are the new places that just got E-911.

http://www.vonage.com/corporate/press_index.html?PR=2005_12_14_1