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Vonage to Follow Florida Attorney General's VoIP E911 Rules
 TMCnet Contributing Editor
Just as Vonage ( News - Alert) announced that 93 percent of its U.S. lines are now equipped with E911 services earlier today, the VoIP  provider also voiced out that it had to sign an agreement with the Attorney General of Florida, Charlie Crist, that requires it to inform subscribers of differences between how the company and standard phone carriers provide those services.
According to the agreement reached by the VoIP provider and Crist’s office, Vonage will automatically offer E911 services to subscribers when they sign up and provide an address. Vonage also agreed to participate in providing more information to local emergency agencies so that its subscribers can be easily located and assisted whenever they are in need.
Because of the portability of VoIP, the agreement also calls for Vonage to inform subscribers that they must update their address every time they move and that they may expect a delay in updating this information. Crist also asked Vonage to inform subscribers of other limitations of the E911 service, including access interruption during power and broadband connection outages.
“While VoIP may offer less expensive telephone service, consumers should be seriously concerned about the possible risks of not having access to 9-1-1 emergency services,” Cox said. “I encourage every Michigan consumer to become informed about this new technology and the important differences between it and traditional telephone service, especially in regards to proper access to the 9-1-1 emergency system.”
Vonage’s E911 access was put to the test in the past when Loren Veltkamp, a homeowner in Chanhassen, Minnesota, lost his house to a fire last month. When Veltkamp noticed that the fire had started, he immediately called 9-1-1 using Vonage. Unfortunately, Vonage put him on hold, causing a delay in the response from emergency workers.
“I called 911 using Vonage broadband and they put us on hold,” Veltkamp said when he was interviewed by ABC channel 5 Eyewitness News Minneapolis/St. Paul. “Unbelievable… your house is burning down, and you’re put on hold by Vonage.” By the time fire crews arrived, the fire had become a five-alarm blaze. The house was a total loss, but no one was injured.”
Hopefully, with the VoIP provider’s E911 access roadmap expansion, situations like these will happen less often. However, Cox’s tips for VoIP subscribers are still very practical:
- Verify that you can access 9-1-1 with your telephone by checking your VoIP provider’s Web site. DO NOT dial 9-1-1 to test your access to the emergency response network.
- Be sure to activate the emergency calling feature of your service plan, if applicable.
- If the power is out, your VoIP service may be out, too. Consider purchasing a back up power supply.
- Inform children, babysitters, and visitors about your VoIP service and relevant limitations.
- Consider keeping a landline telephone to access 9-1-1 emergency services.
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit her columnist page.
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Voice over IP (VoIP) | X | | A real-time communications system that converts voice into digital packets containing media and signaling data that travel over networks using Internet Protocol....more |
Internet Protocol (IP) | X | | IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data
in packets over the Internet. I...more |
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