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Comments on news posted 2005-05-09 09:18:34: On the heels of several state lawsuits over VoIP 911 reliability, comes the story a mother who blames iffy Vonage 911 service for her baby's death. ..
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 tphill5999
join:2004-08-06
Columbus, OH
| Please Learn how things work. I am sadden by this loss of a baby life but Vonaage is not liable for this death.
»www.vonage.com/features.php?feature=911
Vonage Lets You Dial 911
Because Your Safety Is Important
Vonage offers 911 Dialing to all our customers . When you dial 911, your call is routed from the Vonage network to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for your area. (What is a PSAP?) There are several important differences between our Emergency Services dialing and traditional 911 Dialing that you need to know:
Vonage 911 Dialing must be activated
You must tell us where you are
Vonage 911 Dialing connects you with general emergency services
911 Dialing Must Be Activated
911 Dialing is Not Automatically setup for use. You may decline 911 Dialing if you wish, but we STRONGLY urge you to activate 911 Dialing. Even if you don't plan to make 911 calls from your Vonage line, there may be others who do. You can't plan in advance for all situations. For example, a residential line could be used by babysitters, young children, in-laws, and others who may need to make 911 calls. If you decline 911 from Vonage, no one will be able to call 911 from your Vonage line. Don't compromise your safety. Register today.
You Must Tell Us Where You Are
Remember that unlike traditional phone lines, Vonage service is portable to any location with broadband Internet access. For example, you can have a New York number and receive calls in New York. You can also take your equipment with you on a trip but, when you travel, 911 Dialing will automatically route your call to the local emergency personnel location for the address on file, not your temporary location.
When you sign up for Vonage 911 Dialing service, you fill out a short form that tells us your actual physical address. When you dial 911, the call is routed to the local emergency personnel location designated for the address you register.
When you move or travel, you MUST provide your new location. You can easily update your new location through your web account. Be aware that it can take several days before your new settings take effect.
Since Vonage service is so portable, your 911 call could be from anywhere. We need you to verify the physical location of your phone in order to activate the 911 Dialing feature from the phone you are using.
Vonage 911 Dialing Connects You With General Emergency Services
Your call will go to a general access line at the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). This is different from the 911 Emergency Response Center where traditional 911 calls go.
This means your call goes to a different phone number than standard 911 calls. You will need to state the nature of your emergency promptly and clearly, including your location and telephone number, as Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) personnel will NOT have this information on hand.
Service Outages Can Prevent 911
911 and Vonage Service DO NOT function during an electrical power or broadband provider outage.
Important Note
Please refer to the 911 Dialing section in our Terms of Service for important information on potential limitations of this 911 feature, including the differences between our 911 Dialing feature and traditional 911 Dialing.
We encourage Minnesota customers to test 911 Dialing. | |
| | Kiwi
Premium
join:2003-05-26
USA
 ·Comcast
 ·Aristotle Internet
| Re: Please Learn how things work. It's sad, really -Sounds more like SIDS & how long was the baby unattended -Possible speculation until an autopsy.
"Waller's 3 ½-month-old daughter Julia stopped breathing in their Deltona home in March. But when Waller called 911 through Vonage, her broadband phone service provider, all she got was a non-emergency sheriff's recording. She ran to a neighbor's house and finally got through to a 911 dispatcher. But it was too late for Julia.
"I think we lost our daughter because there was no one on the other end and I think Vonage is at fault," Waller said.
"I think" the parent is desperate to feel that the cause was due to a phone call, rather than the reality of this situation! We will all know soon enough, if in fact anyone in the media posts the autopsy, relating to time & cause. Meanwhile Lawyers will suck this dry for all It's worth; that's the American way....
2c worth. Very sad, but perhaps blaming the wrong people. POTS in some areas leaves people waiting past the time it takes to help....Vonage is probably completely incidental to real facts.
A lose of a baby, can't be any worse Life event.
Cheers
--
2.66g/533fsb Intel CPU @ 3.48g512meg Twinmos PC3700~466 DDR @ 2.8v -PCpower&Cooling 512.ATI 9500 Pro @ 9700 Pro @1.6v--AMD ASUS A7N8X-E ~2500+ @3200 ATI 9500 Pro, Corsair 512LL.-- Aristotle.net | |
| | JimF
join:2003-06-15
Allentown, PA
| 911? This will surprise most people, but I have lived most of my life quite securely without 911. We used to keep the numbers of the police and fire departments by the phone. Prior generations even survived without a phone at all. Now people think they are in uninhabited territory unless they have 911 available at the touch of a button. And if they don't get the response they want right away, they sue somebody or worse, complain to the news media. What a bunch of wimps. | |
| 
NEP1611
join:2002-03-27
Northford, CT
| Yiminy I think our Attorney General (and others) who sue Vonage for 911 is little more than political grandstanding. Really this is no different than private ambulance chasers who sue for the same thing, though the currency they are after is political in nature instead of cash-based.
Methinks this was as much an attempt by our AG to keep up with our neighbor (Elliott Spitzer) as much as anything else, he strikes me as much the same publicity hound. | |
| acwaller
join:2005-05-22
Vancouver, WA
| Babies Death on the 911 subject Hi all
Well i have just found out about this whole situation. You all have heard and seen it on the news. I myself wish to not go by what i see and hear on the news and what is going on. I choose to go straight to the horses mouth per say. As you can tell by my screen name i am a member of the Waller family and i have something to say. My daughter is the first child born to Joseph Waller; i was called as soon as baby Julia (my daughters sister) was gone. I had the lovely opportunity of telling my 12 yr old that her sister that she had never met or seen that she was gone and was not going to have the opportunity to ever meet or play with her like her brothers did. My daughter was very upset at the fact that she was never going to see her sister.
Now onto the stuff that i have been reading on this site and on others. I have spoke to my ex-husband at lengths regarding the death of his daughter. The way i found out about all this stuff was not through him but through my daughter. Like many of you she saw it on the news. She was very distraught and upset that she had to see that on the news and all. My ex and his current wife has set in motion what they feel and so do i that Vonage was at fault for the situation. I like many of you thought well what phone company are they using and if they could not get through why not use a cell phone. I have both Vonage and a landline phone and a cell phone. I do not use my Vonage phone for anything but long distance and for faxing. I activated my 911 service and i know from talking to my ex tonight that they did the same thing as i did. I questioned him at length about it tonight. It took a tragedy like this to bring us all together for my daughter’s sake and for the sake of her brothers. But i can tell you that if you go to the website that Cheryl has started »www.911petition.com/ you will see that it is a mother doing what she feels she needs to do for the sake of not just her kids but for the sake of all our kids. I have read that you all think the baby is black and that she is making this all up. But i can a sure you all reading this that it is not made up and that this story is true and that there is no phone company backing this to get rid of Vonage. I know that that have went to the FCC and spoke to them at length and you can see a link to the whole thing on the above named website. I can tell you i have never before seen a picture of Julia as they were in the process of sending my daughter all that when Julia passed away. But i can tell you that looking at the two photos that everyone is questioning, that Julia looks just like my daughter and her father. If you saw pics of Joseph Waller you would say that the baby is a spitting image of her father.
So for those of you that feel you need to bad mouth someone that you don’t even know feel free. But just remember that it will come back to you and you will regret it when the truth comes out.
Yes it has taken Joe and Cheryl Waller a month and a half to get this story out, but think about it. Would you want to immediately start a fight like this right after you lost your baby? I would not and i applaud her for starting this fight and doing what she needs to do for my daughter and for all the other children in the US and overseas that have this phone service. My ex wants me to get rid of Vonage because of this. And as soon as i can i will be getting another phone company because i don’t want to be associated with a phone company or VoIP that dose not have there ducks in a row.
So if i were you i would stop bad mouthing people until you have the whole story and the right one. I am going to stand and fight with my ex husband and i hope that those of you who read this also do the same thing. Contact you local senators and make sure that they are on the bandwagon to pass this bill through the house and senate. The more help that we have in this fight the better off we are all going to be.
When i checked into Vonage i checked it all out and made sure that it was the right one for me. My fiancée is an IT person and he has also checked most of the VOIP out looking for the best one. So when i saw that Vontage had activation for the 911 i thought wow they are on the ball and that i have done my work. I know that Cheryl had done the same thing and never thought in a million years that when she needed the 911 services she would be sent to the administrative lines instead of the 911 centers. I will be testing my service to make sure that it works in Washington State. So just be prepared if this does not work and make sure you have another route available to you if you can not get another phone company.
thanks
angie | |
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