VOIP and 911

[Blanca BusaLess]

Was watching a show tonight on the structure of systems and they discussed VOIPs , voice over Internet protocols . These are phone services people use over the internet. Most popular now is Vonage.
Regarding 911 they made it a point to stress that with these systems 911 calls most often go to the carrrier and not local.
They highlighted a family whose infant went into seizure.
They dialed 911 and were answered by one 2700 miles away who mistakenly dispatched ems to Their old address.
Infant died as a result of the fact ems never showed.

Point is from them if you use anything other than land line even some cell networks to call 911 make sure they know where you are and clearly speak your address to them. Land lines instantly display address when answered at ems not all others do .

Could be a matter of life and death .

 

[BIG GUY]

This is some sad news. Even though I don't use my land line at my house I still have one. This is one of the major reasons as to why we need a hard land line. We had a case a few years ago where a family called 911. When 911 got dispatched they went to the right address, but it was just on the wrong street. The family used a cell phone to call and did not know their full address so the dispatcher used their locating program. It gave them the address, but there was 2 streets with the same name within the same city. The system just picked one. The family tried to sue for millions of dollars, but they didn't get anywhere near there.

 

[majestic12]

Good safety note. So many of us just use our Cellphones we for get about that hard line jack in the wall. It is good to have a basic phone, not cordless, in your bed room light up numbers are a plus. Even if you don't have phone service you can dial 911 and the call will go through. The telephone gets power from the phone line. Even if your power is out the phone has a good chance of working, thanks to the fact their power system is normaly miles away from your trouble.