Vonage/VOIP & e911: Please Explain

[GTaudiophile]

Could someone please explain in layman's terms how "e911" works with VOIP services like Vonage?

My father (61) is a bit worried about this aspect and I find it hard to explain to him how it works. I want to put his mind fully at ease such that he can finally cut the cord on AT&T.

Thanks.

 

[pm]

e911 is an automated system to tell the 911 dispatcher where you are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1#VoIP_enhanced_911

In the beginning, VOIP wasn't supported by 911 or e911. In 2005, the FCC required that VOIP carriers provide location information for e911. The way it works is that when you install the device, you tell Vonage where you are installing it, then when you call 911, the e911 location information from Vonage tells the dispatcher where you are. As long as you don't physically move the device (like take it on vacation with you), you are set and a VOIP phone works with 911 just as an ordinary landline phone does.

There was a problem around 2005 where e911 and VOIP didn't work very well, or there were delays, or the carriers didn't support it, but to the best of my knowledge all of these issues have been resolved and if you call 911 from a VOIP carrier the automated location system works the same as if you did from a wired phone.

About the only negative is that in the event of a power outage, older phones sometimes will work with a wired phone line but getting your VOIP box working with your network router requires a fair bit of battery backup and still might not work. For this situation, though, I'd just use my cell phone.

 

[gsaldivar]

For 911, nothing beats a land line and a good old fashioned telephone. There are many advantages of VOIP but this is not one of them. Even if you put the entire system on a UPS, it will probably not work during a local power outage due to the simple fact that neighborhood ISP routing equipment is often not UPS protected and without that you are dead in the water.

If you do a VOIP solution and want 911 redundancy, just keep an old cell phone (with a good, charged battery) in a safe place. It doesn't even have to be activated. Any digital cell phone (GSM/CDMA) will allow you to place a 911 call without an active subscription...

 

[silverpig]

There was a case here in Canada where a couple had a home VOIP service and e911 registered their location when they set up the service. They stayed with the same VOIP provider, but moved a few thousand km away. They updated their billing address with the phone company, but it never updated e911.

They called 911 one day and the ambulance was sent to their old house. After 20 minutes of: "they are there" "I don't see them" "they are just outside" "I still don't see them" "they are knocking on the door" "I don't hear anything yet" ... They finally figured it out, but the dude died or something.

 

[GTaudiophile]

So if he picks up the phone and dials 911, a message is just sent to local dispatch with his address or does he get a real, human emergency responder on the line?

 

[pm]

It's definitely the exact same real 911. You get a real 911 call to the same group of people who would take any 911 call in your area. It's the same. The "e911" part of it doesn't have anything to do with it being VOIP. e911 is a method of having your address automagically sent to the 911 dispatcher.

The issue has never been (except briefly for a couple of months back about 6 years ago) about reaching a real 911 person - it's about getting that person your address instantly.

The thing gets confusing because there was a brief period of time back around 2005/2006 where Vonage had problems linking their system to e911 and they set up their own 911 operators to take calls that were bounced back to them due to the way that they'd messed up setting up their system. But this was a temporary thing about 5-6 years ago and it stopped a long time ago. At the time it got a huge amount of negative media attention - and, in fact, spurred the FCC to much tighter regulation of VOIP providers regarding 911.

The situation Silverpig described has happened in the past but the system is pretty good nowadays and I haven't heard anything bad about it in literally 5+ years. I'm not saying that things are absolutely perfect in all cases - I actually have no way of knowing if they are or not - but I do know that I haven't heard any VOIP 911 disaster stories in the media in a really long time. In the absolute worst case, you might have to tell the 911 dispatch your address, or you might want to confirm it with them.

If you google "vonage 911" or "voip 911" and read the horrible stories, they all date back to 2005/2006. Nothing recently.

Nowadays all of the VOIP 911 complaints are about the fee. 🙂

 

[Plugers]

For 911, nothing beats a land line and a good old fashioned telephone. There are many advantages of VOIP but this is not one of them. Even if you put the entire system on a UPS, it will probably not work during a local power outage due to the simple fact that neighborhood ISP routing equipment is often not UPS protected and without that you are dead in the water.

If you do a VOIP solution and want 911 redundancy, just keep an old cell phone (with a good, charged battery) in a safe place. It doesn't even have to be activated. Any digital cell phone (GSM/CDMA) will allow you to place a 911 call without an active subscription...

That's not how it works for the local cable provider in my area.

There are power supplies on the line and they have battery back up (8 hours) and there are power supply transponders that indicate the battery level. Backup generators are dispatched and a rotating schedule is made to fill them back up. The biggest problem are douchbags who seem to believe if they have a bolt cutter, the now own a generator.

I wonder if they realize they may be taking someones life also if e911 is needed.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Thanks for the replies. I guess my dad has nothing to fear.

 

[soccerballtux]

The biggest problem are douchbags who seem to believe if they have a bolt cutter, the now own a generator.

lmao