Re: [Telecom] 911 foul up may have cost a life

Dec 12, 2007 1 Replies

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hancock4 18 years ago

There's no reason you couldn't have a hierarchical setup for E-911

> services in a large state. Make all calls go to state, which then
> transfers automatically to county or city level based upon the Intrado
> database lookup.

There is a very big reason you can't do that--databases simply do not get updated as frequently as necessary to reflect wireless, landline, and VOIP changes.

The foulup I reported resulted in a misunderstanding of 30 miles away. With a statewide system, you'll have a call for help ending up

300 miles away and much more confusion.

Dialing 0 on Vonage gets you nothing at all.

What happens if a Vonage subscriber needs assistance?

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Ken Abrams 18 years ago

wrote

Is this the same person who has been a long-time contributor to the Digest?? If so, have you had a head injury recently ?? ;-)

VOIP customers must do what we ALL did before the advent of 911; we wrote down the actual phone number of the local service agencies and kept it near the phone. That worked pretty well for about ........oh what, 50 years ?? And you didn't have to rely on somebody else to pick the right agency to call for you. Ah new technology; often good, usually better but not perfect. Now if a VOIP customer needs emergency assistance during a power failure............

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