As if on cue after writing yesterday about VOIP, a news story popped up this morning regarding 911 service on VOIP phones specifically the 911 services provided by Vonage. It seems the State of Texas is suing VOIP-provider Vonage for misleading the public on the way their 911 service works.
According to the lawsuit, Texas alledges that Vonage 911 calls aren't routed in the traditional manner. Rather, most end up at the administrative offices of the 6,000 emergency calls centers rather than dispatchers. According the the Texas State Attorney General, the dangers of the circuitous route were exposed in early March when a 17-year-old Houston girl was unable to get through to police after dialing 911 on a Vonage phone after both her parents were shot by intruders.
Vonage replied only by stating that there are numerous disclosures of these facts on their web site, which I thought to be a rather strange reply. Vonage does not charge for their 911 service. If you would like to read the full text of the articles, go to:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-5630118.html?
After reading this story, I decided to check on the 911 service of my own provider, Packet 8. In doing so, I discovered two things...one is that they lowered their 911 service from $4.95 a month to $1.50 per month. I am glad I checked.
The second item I discovered is that Packet 8 seems to handle their 911 in the more traditional manner used by regular telephone services. Here is a description of their 911 service directly from their web site:
The three-digit telephone number "9-1-1" has been designated as the "Universal Emergency Number," for citizens throughout the United States to request emergency assistance. It is intended as a nationwide telephone number and gives the public fast and easy access to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). With the emergence of cellular and Internet telephone services, there is demand to deliver a comprehensive 911 solution from these telecommunication mediums as well. Packet8 is the first Internet residential telephone service to offer "Enhanced" 911 (E911) service which automatically routes calls and computer-based "screen pops" of caller information to emergency personnel at local Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). Because Packet8's E911 call data is routed as emergency traffic and is accompanied by E911 caller information, callers receive the same response from emergency personnel that they are accustomed to receiving from legacy, switched telecommunications 911 services provided by traditional telephone carriers.
Packet8's E911 also provides emergency operators with a caller's location information. This information could be vital for cases where the caller is unable to reveal or communicate their whereabouts because of the emergency condition. 8x8, a signatory to the Voice on the Net Coalition/NENA (National Emergency Number Association) statement of principles, has been working with its commercial partners and NENA to rapidly deploy E911 services to Packet8 subscribers. Until now, Internet telephone service providers have either not supported 911 emergency calls or have utilized simple "10-digit routing" technique to pass 911 calls to non-emergency, telephone numbers. These "10-digit routing" techniques typically resulted in 911 calls being connected to a variety of locations including non-emergency or administrative lines of PSAPs, the "crime-not-in-progress" number of a police station, or, in some instances, invalid numbers. Packet8's E911 service, developed in partnership with Level3 Communications (Nasdaq : LVLT), eliminates these issues, and delivers on the principles outlined in 8x8's past agreements with NENA. Upon signing up for this optional Packet8 service, 8x8 will take down vital information of your stationary location so that in the unfortunate event where emergency E911 services are required you will be automatically routed to the correct group and location handling standard 911calls.
Cost: $1.50 per month, $9.95 activation fee
I would like to point out that I am not pushing Packet 8 here, it just that its the one I am most familiar with.
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