RE: Vonage SUED over not clearly informing customers re 911 service lacking
Re: "Your Call Will Go To A General Access Line at the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). This is different from the 911 Emergency Response Center where traditional 911 calls go." In talking with my local PSAP about VoIP services and this particular issue, they (PSAPs collectively) are fairly displeased with Vonage-like services and how it introduces delay into their process which is all about time sensitive information. With the advances in E911, cell phone location services, etc. which all increased the speed of identifying caller location and identity, residential VoIP services have set things back a fair amount. The "General Access" line that Vonage's text mentions means different things to different PSAPs and some (mine anyway) prioritize calls coming in on this line to the lowest queue and with some areas it may not even be answered outside of core operating hours or during high-call periods. I'm not saying (nor do I hope the PSAPs are either) that Vonage should cease and desist service because of the 911 issues, rather greater partnership needs to be initiated to insure that VoIP service and POTS have the same priority for 911 and that all possible information is transmitted in a timely manner for 911 dispatchers to get the right services to you as fast as possible. I read on a Vonage customer forum about "testing" your 911 service with them, I don't know that I'd advocate that as the PSAPs will likely be ticked. But again, it emphasizes a point about collaboration between Vonage and the areas it supports to insure customer safety. If you are a Vonage customer, I'd urge you to verify your 911 info with them. Sure you'll hopefully never need the service, but if your house is on fire or your child is choking or whatever the unfortunate event is, will you really be able to give them your full address and call-back number in a time of crisis? I hope so... Sorry about the soapbox, I have strong feelings on this one... - Scott Scott.altman@target.com Paid-on-call firefighter and network guy
On 2005-03-24-14:02:26, "Network.Security" <Network.Security@target.com> wrote:
I'm not saying (nor do I hope the PSAPs are either) that Vonage should cease and desist service because of the 911 issues, rather greater partnership needs to be initiated to insure that VoIP service and POTS have the same priority for 911 [...]
Actually, I believe it would be a step in the right direction. I've had an opportunity to use a CLEC-resold version of the Intrado service, which I believe is what Vonage uses to provide its customers with "911" capabilities. Intrado's job is not an easy one, and given the technical, regulatory, and demand-related obstacles they face, they do a decent job at what they do. (With that said, accidents can happen, mostly in the form of the LEC neglecting to contact Intrado and inform them of a subscriber's address, or Intrado neglecting to enter that information in the database, and there's no real way to detect this shy of placing test calls to 911, but I digress...) Rather, the problem we face is that VoIP, despite working "good enough" 99% of the time, is susceptible to failure modes above and beyond POTS: loss of power and/or IP connectivity, to name a couple. The likelihood of these failure modes surfacing in the event of a fire, flood, theft, or other event requiring a 911 dispatch, is a non-trivial concern. What Vonage (or any operator in their position really) should do is tell its customers, in no uncertain terms, that their service does not exist as a replacement for a land line, and to keep a cellular or POTS phone available for use in case of an emergency. And if a subscriber chooses to dial 911 anyway, present them with either a reorder tone, or a recording instructing them to hang up and proceed to the nearest land/cell phone. Of course, the likelihood of this happening out of moral responsibility, and without any -- dare I say -- federal mandate, is unfortunately slim, and goes against the way these services are presently marketed to consumers... My $0.02, -a
On Thu, Mar 24, 2005 at 01:02:26PM -0600, Network.Security wrote:
I read on a Vonage customer forum about "testing" your 911 service with them, I don't know that I'd advocate that as the PSAPs will likely be ticked. But again, it emphasizes a point about collaboration between Vonage and the areas it supports to insure customer safety.
Nope. I asked a local 911 dispatcher. They said that yes, as long as you immediately identify your call as a non-emergency test call, and don't do it too often, they don't object. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth jra@baylink.com Designer Baylink RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates The Things I Think '87 e24 St Petersburg FL USA http://baylink.pitas.com +1 727 647 1274 If you can read this... thank a system adminstrator. Or two. --me
participants (3)
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Jay R. Ashworth -
Network.Security