May 14, 2006
Ric Kahn's article '311' (City Weekly, April 30) hits the nail on the head with regard to the desirability of a centralized citizen request, dispatch, and tracking system for city services, but misses the mark in suggesting that 311 should be the access code.
I believe that using 311 as the telephone access code for the centralized request line is not a good idea in 2006. 311 works only if all callers in the city can reach it -- if it's ''routable," in telecom industry lingo. And with today's widespread use of cellphones and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services such as Vonage or Skype, that's a problem. The author points to Baltimore's success with
311 -- but that system was set up 10 years ago, when nearly everyone's primary means of calling was a conventional ''wireline" telephone. Today, many people have gone completely wireless, or switched from a conventional wireline service to VoIP.The article mentions that Somerville has instituted 311 service. Suppose Boston did, too, and suppose a Charletown resident, near the Somerville line, dials 311 from a cellphone. That call might be picked up by a nearby cell tower in Somerville.
The wireless industry has been working long, hard, and expensively to solve the problem for Enhanced 911 emergency services, and it's not completely fixed yet.
The Menino administration is correct in advocating use of a conventional 10-digit telephone number to access a central citizen request line. A 10-digit phone number is universally routable.
Kenneth Pogran Lexington
Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.