I assume most of you know whats E911.If not, then in simple words its the 911 helpline service run by US & Canada police in their country. So whats up with VOIP Nightmare? Well if you live in USA or Canada and using one of the VOIP services, you very well know what i am talking about. In fact, you just uttered that word "****" thinking about your crap VOIP provider :-)
To tell you why VOIP is a nightmare when using E911, Lets look at this real story in Canada as reported by The Redding Pilot,
"A Redding resident’s call for help last week went unanswered by police for a short time, after the resident’s Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service bounced the call to a 911 call center in Canada. Precious seconds ticked by as the Canadian call center worked to relay the call back to Redding police. However, when the call was forwarded to the department, it rang up the routine phone line rather than the 911 line. During emergencies, the routine line is not always answered and doesn’t display such caller information as location. Despite the scrambled phone call, police were able to come to the resident’s aid in time."
Now you understood the gravity of the situation. 911 numbers can't be reach via VOIP. Apparently, many VOIP providers do not have the ability to route calls directly to 911 operators -these calls are first routed to an e911 number, which is then often routed to the PSAP (Public Safety Access Point) administration line. Imagine, someone with heart attack using Vonage to make a call...........
Its high time that this needs to be fixed. FCC is working in that direction. Vonage has taken this seriously and has taken the step forward in making this service work for their voip customers.
Till it becomes a reality and a standard for all VOIP providers, this will be a major flaw in the growth.
0 comments:
Post a Comment