Death by Carrier?, or Select Your DialTone Wisely

Unless you have been sequestered for a 60 day sleep deprivation study you have seen the wildfires in California right? To Ca’s credit most of the 911 systems in the State also have the ability to do Reverse 911. It’s a fancy term for multitrunk outward dial with a recorded message. In Ca’s case they used the technology to call residential phone lines to warn of approaching fires. Neat trick.

But all was not glory in this happening. If you were a VoIP subscriber or a cell phone only user, which many are, you were out of luck. The technology is landline centric. Charles Sahner a Vonage spokesman:

These systems [including Reverse 911] are not designed for ‘nomadic’ systems like cell phones or VOIP,” Sahner said.

They use the old database of landline numbers. “We’ve been working with state and local officials for a long time in an effort to get everybody on the same page. The emergency-system people need to realize that the world is moving to other services like cells and VOIP, and that these lists of numbers should be included with all the older landline numbers.”

I won’t point fingers to either the VoIP providers or cell carriers. All of them prominently display in their contracts that they are not 911 aware providers. Even though many like Vonage do provide a 911 tie in. It is of course a matter of geography — you and your cell may not be at your residential billing address when you call. (GPS enabled cells solve some of this, IF you have it turned on when you call!)

But it does seem to me that a minor programming change to the 911 system is in order. People should be permitted to ‘opt-in’ any device they wish into the system, so long as a dial back confirmation can be established. Considering that the landline carriers are losing primary line business in the double digits this should be addressed. The alternative is a 911 system that becomes more and more irrelevant as time marches on.

To quote Martha Stewart — “That’s a Good Thing.”

Linky.