1. Home
  2. General Telecommunications Forum
  3. PSAP Locations, was: Texas Sues Vonage Over 911 Problem

PSAP Locations, was: Texas Sues Vonage Over 911 Problem

The states in my area allow a 911 fee to be tacked on to phone

> bills. The money goes to the run the 911 call centers.

And there's a Santa Clause.

IIRC, it was previously discussed here the VOIP fails to send the > calling number for Caller ID displays, so the recipient gets a > meaningless 111-111-1111 display.

Many, and soon just about all, VOIP phones send across the Caller ID string associated with the account. The fact that (many) PSAPs can't use regular consumer CNID and do a comparison/sanity check against both the ANI string and the "911" caller info is due to their own equipment limitations.

(This is separate from the very real issue of the small number of folk who'd get a VOIP account in Lenexa, Ks, and then take the adapter with them and make calls that are physically coming from Uzbekistan)

As to the editor's comments, there are conventional phone numbers that > will reach the emergency center and will be answered (at least in my > area). But how would a VOIP know what number to use, esp when the > caller can "float" and be anywhere? Further, such numbers change when > area codes change or for other reasons; that was a factor in > establishing "911" as a unified constant emergency number in the first > place.

Conveniently enough, the FCC maintains a list of PSAPs:

"Information regarding PSAP ID, PSAP Name, and PSAP County can be obtained from the FCC's Master PSAP Registry. The following state listings have been updated: Arizona, Arkansas, California, (etc., etc., and so forth)."

formatting link
So it would be trivial for the VOIP folk to do a translation of all calls placed to "911" and route them to the PSAP serving the registered "home" of the customer.

Now in regards to figuring out the exact boundaries, well, isn't it about time the local gov'ts got their acts together? In many parts of the country you'll find little or no coterminality between, oh, sanitation services, postal zip codes, water supply, fire protection, school districts, and police coverage. Now whose fault is that?

As a side note, wouldn't it be nice if the Feds got together and had a _central_, national, number for help? One that got a little office in, say, Cheyenne and had tie lines to every 911 PSAP?

Right now, for example, if I'm in East Cupcake, NY and on the phone with a friend of mine in Walla Walla and he collapses onto the floor, how am I supposed to get him help? Watcha wanna bet that if I called my local PSAP they wouldn't have a clue?

With a central office (at least available to the PSAPs, but really should be open to all) life would be much simpler.

_____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key snipped-for-privacy@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

Reply to
Danny Burstein
Loading thread data ...

the Mau Mau were revolutionaries; they were the ones who made the word "Uhuru" [Kenyan word for "freedom"]. They were the ones who brought it to the fore. The Mau Mau, they were revolutionaries. They believed in scorched earth. They knocked everything aside that got in their way, and their revolution also was based on land, a desire for land. In Algeria, the northern part of Africa, a revolution took place. The Algerians were revolutionists; they wanted land. France offered to let them be integrated into France. They told France: to hell with France. They wanted some land, not some France. And they engaged in a bloody battle.

So I cite these various revolutions, brothers and sisters, to show you

-- you don't have a peaceful revolution. You don't have a turn-the-other-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution. [The] only kind of revolution that's nonviolent is the Negro revolution. The only revolution based on loving your enemy is the Negro revolution. The only revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater, a desegregated park, and a desegregated public toilet; you can sit down next to white folks on the toilet. That's no revolution. Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.

The white man knows what a revolution is. He knows that the black revolution is world-wide in scope and in nature. The black revolution is sweeping Asia, sweeping Africa, is rearing its head in

Reply to
Danny Burstein

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.