Every second counts with a 911 call. With POTS the 911 dispatcher can send a police unit and/or ambulance out to your home instantly. With VoIP or mobile service, if you are unable to provide location information yourself, the 911 dispatcher will have to contact this gentleman's service, wasting valuable seconds waiting for the location which needs a police unit and/or ambulance. Until VoIP gains the same level of 911 service as POTS, I'm not going to switch to POTS. Anyone who has been through a life-threatening experience where they were unable to tell the dispatcher their location information should be able to agree with me. Now, I have been told that Everest provides their bundled telephone service through the POTS, so they seem like a good alternative choice to SBC phone service. However, their service sounds like they aren't VoIP either. --- Paul Taylor <paul@kcnetcare.com> wrote:
My team fields about 60+ calls a day from PSAPs that cannot get location or information from a caller who dialed 911. We assist PSAP operators by providing location of the device (VoIP or mobile).
Leo Mauler wrote:
--- Luke-Jr <luke@dashjr.org> wrote:
On Wednesday 16 November 2005 01:05, Leo Mauler wrote:
About the only reasons I don't switch to any kind of VoIP are 911 service (the 911 dispatcher knows where you are withregular phone service but not with VoIP),
If you can dial 911, why can't you say where youare? :\
If you ever have a condition, such as a heart attack, which causes you to gasp for breath and be unable to speak, but leave you able to dial the phone (or at least punch the 911 speed-dial button), you'll find out just how important it is to have the 911 dispatcher know where your phone is located, without any input from you.
And you would probably be surprised to find out that when, for example, you've just accidentally cut deeply into your thumb with a broken light bulb, and you can't seem to stop the flow of blood, you find yourself so panicked that you temporarily forget where you live. Thankfully the POTS system saved me, the 911 dispatcher knew where to send the ambulance. I'd hate to think what would have happened had I been on a VoIP system.
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