EASTERN UPPER PENINSULA - New technology threatens to bring old problems back to local residents as Voice Over Internet Phone service (VOIP) may be unable to connect residents with their local central dispatch systems in times of emergency.
"What we want to make people aware of is they are not able to access
911 like you can on a traditional phone," said Mackinac County 911 Coordinator Pam Matelski. "The dispatch center will not get your information."In Chippewa County, callers should not have difficulty reaching 911 while utilizing the new system.
"It's an issue and we are on top of it," said Chippewa County Central Dispatch Director Tim McKee. "We have done what we need to do to insure VOIP calls are directed to the appropriate administrative line."
Unlike Luce and Mackinac counties, which go through the Regional 911 Dispatch Center in Negaunee, Chippewa County has the advantage of housing its emergency and administrative offices inside the same building. As a result, 911 calls over the VOIP boxes can be directed to the county's administrative line and, from there, quickly channeled on to the dispatchers in the next room.
To date, Vonage is the only company that appears to be offering this new phone service in the Eastern Upper Peninsula. [COMMENT: Actually, that is not true. Viewed one way, any major VoIP provider can be used from anywhere broadband service is available, including the Eastern Upper Peninsula. However, at the present time, only VoicePulse and Broadvoice offer numbers in the Upper Peninsula - in contrast, if you go to Vonage's site and do a search on the 906 area code, it returns "No Area Codes Available" (which probably really means no ratecenters are available).]
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