I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Vonage should not be offering 911 at all, rather, they should be highlighting the fact that emergency call centers do not allow Vonage to route emergency calls to the right place (so their only option is to dump the call to an administrative number.)
Personally, I'd rather have attempts to dial 911 get the "Stop, this phone does not have 911 service" then get through to someone who can't or won't help.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But wouldn't the ideal arrangement be like here? A number designated for 'emergency but not 911' phone is terminated on the consoles of the persons who respond for police, etc, and they are tipped off "if this line, with its unusual cadence in ringing goes off, it is to be treated like any other emergency call".Our dispatchers answer not only the occassional 911 call, but they also answer for the city hall offices. The PSAP people (at Vonage, and elsewhere) are told to connect with them as needed _using one of the back lines_ on the city hall group; a line which would almost never get calls on its own. Now, if _that phone_ rings/flashes, treat it as a priority emergency call. The same woman sitting there taking calls for the city hall centrex/switchboard sees that one phone give out a continuous (never pausing) ring with the light on the wall flashing at a furious pace says 'ah, it is an emergency call from a system which cannot (for whatever reason) use 911. She answers it and makes dispatch as needed. Does not seem like that major of problem. That single phone, by the way, also has a caller-ID device on it, and a rather detailed map on the wall as well, so the dispatcher gets the essence of the desired information, even if not every single bit of it. Ah, but that would involve _training_ the dispatchers in possibly a new procedure. Do you think their Civil Servants Union would allow that sort of a requirement?