According to Consumer Affairs, a Minnesota homeowner claims that Vonage put him on hold when he called 911 to report his house was on fire. Of course, it isn't really Vonage that put him on hold, but the infrastructure than handles the routing of 911 calls made via a VoIP provider is different than 911 calls from traditional PSTN lines. I'm sure the traditional carriers will be all over this one. "Stay with us and get REAL 911." or "Stay with us and choose our inexpensive $39.99/month unlimited VoIP plan and you can be guaranteed true 911 service". $40 inexpensive? My ass... Guess you get what you pay for. Still, I'd rather have my cheapo VoIP service and take my chances on 911 since I hate being raped by the telcos. Though maybe in a month when my first baby is born I'll feel differently. Wish they'd resolve the 911 issue once and for all!
Vonage 911 - My house is on Fire! Please hold...
Categories:
Technorati
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Digg
twitter- Related Entries to Vonage 911 - My house is on Fire! Please hold...
- Cops Befuddled by Vonage 911 Crying baby emergency call - Sep 08, 2008
- Vonage reaches 70% E911 compliance - Mar 30, 2006
- NENA Interim/Migratory I2 Standard Published - Dec 08, 2005
- sipgate enters U.S VoIP Broadband Market offering free calls - Jun 02, 2009
- Vonage slams Skype for not following emergency rules - Oct 09, 2008
- Texting 911 for Help & Targeting Terrorists who SMS with Hellfire Missiles - Jul 16, 2008
- South Korea VoIP Number Portability Shenanigans - Jul 07, 2008
- Congress tells FCC, "We'll Handle e911" - Jun 09, 2006
- Mitel Simplifies VoIP with LLDP-MED-Ready Open Standard - Dec 12, 2005
- FCC just doesn't understand your Lingo - Nov 29, 2005
Listed below are links to sites that reference Vonage 911 - My house is on Fire! Please hold...:
Vonage 911 - My house is on Fire! Please hold... TrackBack URL : http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/24501
2 Comments
Leave a comment
Related Entries
- Cops Befuddled by Vonage 911 Crying baby emergency call
- Vonage reaches 70% E911 compliance
- NENA Interim/Migratory I2 Standard Published
- sipgate enters U.S VoIP Broadband Market offering free calls
- Vonage slams Skype for not following emergency rules
- Texting 911 for Help & Targeting Terrorists who SMS with Hellfire Missiles
- South Korea VoIP Number Portability Shenanigans
- Congress tells FCC, "We'll Handle e911"
- Mitel Simplifies VoIP with LLDP-MED-Ready Open Standard
- FCC just doesn't understand your Lingo
You don't have to get phone service to be able to dial 911. Much like with cell phones, any phone line, whether you are paying for service or not, can dial 911. So the solution it seems to me is to not disconnect the land phone line and keep a phone plugged into it incase there is an emergency. The only disadvantage here is that it makes implementing a whole-house voip solution a bit more difficult. If you're lucky, you have two lines into your place and you're fine. Otherwise, my solution is to have a set of wireless phones which operate off of one single base station, so I don't have to connect connect to my TID instead of wiring the house to be able to use the jacks.
The Consumer Affairs story seems to be saying that all VoIP 911 calls are handled only through IP networks, which isn't the case. And it's hard to tell by the story whether the customer was using E911 or basic 911 over VoIP. I just wrote over on Earthling about the difference.