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E911 and voip
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Most of us take for granted that when we pick up the phone and dial 911, the emergency operator will automatically know right where we are and what our callback number is. This can be critical information if you can't speak.
When you make an emergency call, your call is automatically routed to the nearest Public Safety Answering Station (PSAP), where an operator then alerts the appropriate emergency response resource, whether it's an ambulance, fire station, or the police.
This can be a real problem for voip, because numbers aren't fixed to any specific location. With voip, a person in California could easily have a New York number. Additionally, because service is tied to a portable voip internet phone adapter instead of a phone jack in your house, it's difficult for emergency crews to know where you might be.
As a result, special databases were set up to help collect this information. When a voip E911 call goes out, your information is forwarded to the PSAP on record for your area. As a voip customer, you have a responsibility to make sure your information is current and that the PSAP you'll be routed to is the correct one. Voip.com members can login to their account portal and update their E911 info quickly and easily. Checking that the PSAP is the right one is also easy; just dial 933 from your voip.com phone.
