[asterisk-biz] VoIP 9-1-1 failure - don't let it happen to you

[Steve Totaro]

On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 8:36 PM, Jay R. Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> On Sat, May 03, 2008 at 08:57:00AM -0400, Steve Totaro wrote:
>  > Moreover, whenever I turn up or even start servicing an existing
>  > system, I call 911 and tell the operator that I am "the telephone guy"
>  > and that I wanted to confirm that they have the proper name and
>  > address for that number.
>
>  I have heard that you should do this by calling the 9-1-1 line
>  directly, and that you should call the PSAP on a toll line (which, I
>  guess, you should "just know") to confirm the ALI.
>
>  How do those calls go when you do them, Steve?
>
>
>  Cheers,
>  -- jra
>  --
>  Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
>  Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
>  Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com                     '87 e24
>  St Petersburg FL USA      http://photo.imageinc.us             +1 727 647 1274
>
>              Those who cast the vote decide nothing.
>              Those who count the vote decide everything.
>                -- (Joseph Stalin)
>

The calls go well with 911.  A few times, the operator seemed slightly
annoyed but in the DC/Balto area, they are overworked and
understaffed.

http://www.911dispatch.com/info/fact_figures.html

# 1,296 PSAPs are staffed by a single, on-duty dispatcher (NENA, 2003)
# Washington (DC) receives 1.8 million 911 calls per year, Los Angeles
5 million, Baltimore (MD) 1.7 million

The customer is almost always in shock when I make the call but I feel
it goes a long way to show that you are not just concerned with
selling a system and making a buck, you actually care about their
wellbeing.  The six or seven that had the wrong information, the
customers were very thankful that I the testing.