911 Service and VoIP

[Leo Mauler]

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 at 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 at 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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