What is Digg?172 Comments
- haqattaq, on 10/12/2007, -4/+73It only takes 1 unreliable 911 call to make a huge difference in the rest of your life.
- diecastbeatdown, on 10/12/2007, -8/+51do you have a phone? plug it in the wall. 911 is free, you don't need service of any kind to call 911 from a phone line. Go buy some old junky 70s hotel phone (the most reliable kind in the world) and plug it in somewhere in your house. Buy a red one, make it official. Put a sign over it for the kids and guests saying "911 PHONE" or something.
VoIP rocks. I have a black hotel phone in my house plugged into the wall.
PS - if you are super paranoid about getting in touch with 911 you will want a cell phone and land line, what if a burglar cuts your phone line? - rockintom99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27911 is also required on disconnected cell phones. So keep an old phone for that purpose and keep it in a safe spot. :)
(whoops, wrong reply. this goes on the thread below) - rpdillon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19I've been using Vonage for a couple of years and been very happy.
That said, this article is simply inaccurate (not the Digg summary, the *actual article*):
"I called 911 using Vonage broadband and they put us on hold," Velthamp told KSTP-TV in Minneapolis. %u201CUnbelievable%u2026 your house is burning down, and you're put on hold by Vonage.%u201D
This is total BS. Vonage did no such thing...vonage has giant RED disclaimers all over their site saying they will forward your call (automatically) to emergency centers near you, based on the address information you submit to them. There is no way that this guy was put on hold by Vonage; he was put on hold by the offices Vonage directed his call to, which wasn't the 911 call center.
Vonage goes way out of its way to make it clear it cannot route calls to 911 call centers, but it will get your call forwarded to other local emergency numbers. So long as customers understand that and agree, I fail to see how Vonage is liable. - teknopagan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Story reported as inaccurate - Vonage did not put this man on hold, his local emergency center did. Vonage 911 calls are automatically routed to your local emergency services center. The details of the fire are fairly correct, at least - according to the Chanhassen FD website at http://www.ci.chanhassen.mn.us/safety/fire/fcalls.html , they were assisted by Chaska, Eden Prairie, Excelsior, and Victoria Fire Departments - sounds like it ended up a five alarm to me.
Here's the link to the original KSTP-TV story - http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/s14441.html .
The thing that gets me is this - the guy ran back into the burning house, against the orders of the police and fire dept, to save his computer. If they were already on scene at the time he was trying to run back in, it couldn't have been that bad when they arrived.
Another relevant link - this one is to a Vonage user's forum with an excellent discussion on the topic - http://www.vonage-forum.com/sutra68888.html#68888 - gronne, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Or buy a cheap cell phone to keep around. Even if you don't have service you can call 911.
- sentry21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Dude if you were put on hold while your house was burning down u would proabably run to a neighbors house that has a landline.
- akabigwurm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I live in MN and use Vontage called 911 a few times works just fine for me, maybe they set it up wrong. Funny the 911 works right but the police take foever to get there.
As for hooking up a phone to the old line - Wont do any good Quest turns off the line and there is no Dial tone. - thenativeraver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8True, but this is a city, it's not the middle of nowhere.
http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=Chanhassen,+MN - longofest, on 10/12/2007, -9/+17@diecastbeatdown: You're an idiot. you need a dial tone in order to dial 911. Dial tone costs money to get... typically about $5/month. Even though it's dirt cheap, if you are already paying for a phone service of some kind, you should expect it's 911 service to be reliable.
I have Vonage, and frankly I'm going to be looking into this story further. Vonage has put a decent amount of marketing into allaying my fears about their 911 system. If this is true and it is Vonage's fault and not the emergency dispatch's fault, then I'm dropping Vonage and sticking with my Cell phone. - aggieandrew, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Not everyone has nearby neighboors!
- swissdietcoke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8He means keep a dead landline..Many states forbid phone companies from disconnecting emergency services, even on an unpaid unsubscribed line.
- g30ph, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8After Hurricane katrina, I had to drive around looking for a cell phone signal. That wasn't good because there weren't any working gas stations. But my landline still worked for a few days after the storm because the phone company had back-up batteries or something. Landline is still the most reliable. Cell phones are #2. Thats a big #2 though, I haven't used the house phone since the hurricane.
- jackthoreson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7The "alarm number" of the fire varies from dept. to dept. But a higher alarm fire means more staff and equipment from the department is on the scene. However, there are some rare cases where additional help is needed, and more departments can be called. :)
- iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12@longofest - you're an even bigger idiot. *MOST* telcos will give you a dial tone, w/o subscription or cost at all. As a matter of a fact, it's a law in most states in the U.S. (yes not everyone lives in the U.S.) --- if you try and dial any other number other than 911 it give you the error mesage or directs you to the telco's order line.
- cable22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I believe this is inaccurate as well. I just asked my coworker about "five-alarm" fires since he was a former fireman. He said its highly unlikely seeing as how its hard to get "five-alarm" status on corporate buildings. If something as simple as that is in error, this whole article should be under suspicion.
- ChetOS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Yeah, because money is all that matters.
How about pictures, files on the computer, important documents. - ModernGeek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Cell phones are great for 911. The newer generation of cell phones send a GPS position to the 911 center, so when you call, they know where you are. Once someone wrecked their car, and they were stuck in a ditch. They connected to a Kentucky cell tower, but were in Illinois, so when they called, it went to Kentucky. The dispatcher was able to look at the map where the GPS signal came from, and get the Illinois police and fire out there thanks to the system.
- KAMI_no_kodomo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Yes its true. But use your mobile phone for 911. At least in Europe it's free so you don't have to mind doing it wit a moblie phone.
- SoulMaster2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Any "working" cell phone that can turn on can call 911, regardless if it has service or not
- MediaShipper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You can use an old cell phone without a service plan to call 911. Just have to make sure it is charged
- seattle98104, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6cell phone. get one. vonage doesn't have reliable 911 service, and they haven't for ever. in fact they were fined by the govt. for it.
- JackDoyle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5People switch to VOIP to keep from having to pay the huge amounts of money to have a landline. The cheapest landline I can get here in Roanoke would be about $35/month and that is with NO long distance and NO features at all.
What's the point of doing that ON TOP OF VOIP?
Now, if I can get them to keep me turned on so I can call 911 only, that's cool.. but they'd probably charge me a ton for that, too. - MediaShipper, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This sounds like one of those Astroturf stories put out by the Telecom's PR departments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Once during an ice storm in the Northern part of the state the cell phone calls to 911 were redirected to locations in other states.
Somewhat odd sounding, but a 911 call was redirected to someplace in Ohio and Indiana.
(I'm in Kentucky) - padewak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://www.vonage.com/features.php?feature=911
http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2006/02/vonage_911.html
http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3501991 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree with your speed dial comment. If you have VOIP, stop reading Digg.com right now. Go to Google and type in:
(Insert your city) Fire Department Emergency Phone number
Do the same for your police department. Put the numbers as speed dial #1 and #2 and mark them "911" - spectre_25gt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@jknight
I don't know about you, but when I was 7 and fire prevention week came around, we were all told to get the @$*% out and dial 911 from a neighbor's house. - clickwir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It's not faulty. The caller was faulty. Faulty to blame Vonage. Vonage doesn't pickup 911 calls so it's not possible that they put him on hold. The caller is assuming it was Vonage that picked up when he dialed, it wasn't.
- roeboedog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4In California you don't even need phone service to call 911.
for those others saying that the cell phone is the answer: you don't directly get your closet 911 center. - supersteve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3VOIP is not ready for primetime yet. I'll stick with my phone line thanks
- GaleForce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I guess he lied.
- Mudb0y, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3OK, I worked for a prominent Cell phone provider for 4.5 years, and I helped implement e911 (which is what cell phones use to give details, and hand off to emergency services). There was a regulation that e911 services had to be in place for all carriers sometime about 2 years ago, and almost everyone filed an extension, or got fined. Here's the problem. There was no charter that local emergency services support e911, so even though carriers had to spend 100's of millions for e911, it didn't really make a damn bit of difference.
e911 for VoIP is probably running into the same problem in that emergency services don't have to be able to deal with e911 calls... I think it stupid to already blame Vonage, when we don't know what the issue was. - Kazrog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm very happy with my Vonage account, and they have warned me that the 911 service may not be reliable. I've got a cell phone as well. Vonage gives very clear warnings about this, although this story is sad, I would file it under "user error."
- itsbetteronamac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have vonage, and I trust that when I dial 911 that I will get through. There are 911 problems with all phones, even landlines. Just because there is 1 case where vonage 911 didn't work, dosn't mean that we can forget about all the times it has worked. And, also of interest, as of May 20th Vonage has equipted 70% of call centers with it's E911. http://www.vonage.com/corporate/press_index.php?PR=2006_03_20_1
- ThinkFr33ly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Ok, so keep a land line sitting around for emergencies. You don't have to pay a dime to have 911 access in most states by law.
- prockcore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah, I believe this.. vonage put him on hold.. and he knows it was vonage because vonage said "we, vonage, are going to put you on hold".
It couldn't possibly have been the *911 call center* putting him on hold because they were swamped with all the calls from his neighbors about the "house burning down across the street".
Who wrote this story? Qwest?! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3well, I have been using Vonage for 2 years now, and also have a cell phone, 3 actually from different providers, each person in the house got their own phone, and I think we are covered for any emergency, because if a fire broke out the internet is more than likely going to fail as well, we aren't stupid
- ripter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3even if you did run over to the neighbors, would they let you in (assuming you can't see the fire from the street yet)?
If some came knocking on your door screaming and in a panic, we would all like to think that we would help, but would we? - alterself, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3when i moved i did NOT get a land line and have been exclusivley using vonage. the only issue that i have had is when i am downloading torrents....voice quality gets really bad, but as soon as i stop the entire bandwidth consuimg BT, all is good again.
if you dont want to use VOIP...dont. but dont complain about high phone bills either. I pay $25/mo w/ unlimited long distance. - pbransford, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4He's right. Just take an old phone, remove the sim if it is still there. The phone will still allow 911 calls. (at least the more modern motorolas and nokias do - not sure about those prepaid featureless phones though)
- spectre_25gt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You're talking about Verizon. Ethically, I wouldn't put it past them.
- nitefallz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I keep reading this drivel on here that you can plug a phone into an phone jack and dial 911, even if you have no service. This is not true. I have never had home phone service from where I live, though the previous tenant may have. I plugged my phone(standard phone using Vonage) into the jack and go no dial tone, and dialing 911 does nothing.
- dbavaria, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I once called 911 from my cellphone and I got the same thing, well actually worse. They asked me what city, put me on hold, then they transfered me, I ended up explaining the car accident to both operators...yeah it was like a 5 minute call.
- GTPilot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i had vonage, and there is a place in their control panel for 911 emergency setup. it was very clear that this needed to be setup. i don't think the article mentions if this information was completed on this customer's account. this would be interesting to know.
- clickwir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Don't blame Vonage. It's not a Vonage problem. Vonage redirected the call, they did not put him on hold. This article is wrong. The blame in this article is being put on Vonage and Vonage never took the call. Don't blame Vonage for someone elses mistake.
- SuperSloth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"if you dont want to use VOIP...dont. but dont complain about high phone bills either. I pay $25/mo w/ unlimited long distance."
I only pay $20 for the same level of service. And I don't have VoIP. And my voice quality doesn't change, either. Even though I also have DSL. - wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The guy was an idiot not to have any backup to his Vonage VOIP. If Cox could keep my HSI online just a little bit better I'd switch to some kind of VoIP (not Vonage, no local numbers). However if I did, I'd keep a very minimal land line for a couple of reasons.
1) Under normal circumstances it is the most reliable form of communication. Power out, sunspots, electrical storms: copper line usually still works.
2) I have a house alarm. It needs a phone line to connect when it goes off. Vonage specifically says NOT to try and use VoIP for an alarm system (although I think that the hack to do it would be child's play for your average digg user). They still don't want you to do it, though, as it may be unreliable in an emergency.
3) For emergency contacts the basic phone is the best (as above). Doesn't need power, very durable, and has the best e911 service. - longofest, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@bristolz: I'm telling you man... I've experienced in more than one residence where you plug a phone into a phone jack and you don't get any dial tone.
If you all are correct in your FCC rules stuff, then at least Verizon is blatantly disobeying them and all-out disconnecting service. - Paul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I got rid of all in home phone service 4 years ago. Both my wife and i have personal communication devices with us wherever we are (cell phones) why do we need a line be tied to a building we spend less than half the day in?
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