911 Services
I recently attended the last day of the VON Conference in San Jose. There I learned a bunch of stuff. It was my beginning of VoIP, and, me and my friend who was there with me ran to the room to rest, change, and look up stuff online to get a better understanding. I didn’t learn everything I need to know there, but it was a few hour quick-jump-start into VoIP.
One of the big things I noticed there were a lot of 911/E911 Providers. I wondered why it was a big business. The recent Texas vs. Vonage thing has come out, I’m finding out why.
With VoIP you can take your stuff anywhere. A lot of the stuff I work with right now is more internal, and 911 services don’t matter(especially since the employees can not dial the phone directly, why have 911 if no one can ever dial it to begin with?). But that may change at some point, and I’d rather be prepared. I’d like to begin offering commercial companies VoIP services, and E911 is going to be a big thing, especially since I’m in Texas right now.
There are a few big problems with 911.
1. Much of the 911 services today go over a private network that the PSTNs built to pass along specific data. 911 people want this these days, because it includes address.
2. With VoIP, you can take your phone/laptop anywhere, and have the same number. With IP, there is no way to determine your exact location. We tried this once, the company I do much of my work for, and it was about 20 or 30% accurate. Not good.
Some things that need to be done:
1. Softphones should have a location/zipcode selector, and specificy with a small, out-of-the-way icon, if 911 is available.
2. Hardphones should be given an address with each one, and assumed to be there.
3. VoIP needs a call center for 911 calls, asking the question “Address?” as soon as they pick up, and transfer them to the appropriate emergency office. This needs to be incredibly quick and painless, and I don’t know if that’s possible. This should be for people who do not have a set address attached to their phones.
4. We need a new 911, say, 1911 or 9111, or 912, that would transfer the caller to #3, in case they are not at their assigned address/location but their phone has a set one anyways.
Those are a few of my thoughts. I currently have 1 phone number, a 713 line. I’m going to get a second one, a 214 or 972 number(or a 469 if I can find one!). Neither have 911 services, but I have my cel phone for that, and hey, my cell phone won’t lose connection if I’m running out of my house or if the telephone lines burn down. =)
I was a cell-only person for awhile, still am mostly, but changing that now with the VoIP lines. Gotta love simultaneous ring.
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