Dad Rages Against Comcast 911 > They shouldn't be able to call it "9-1-1"

reply to Hall

Re: They shouldn't be able to call it "9-1-1"

That's not the point... Do you have a landline ?? If so, why don't you "test" that 911 works a few different times of the day. Let me know how it goes.

I have never read about instances of POTS 9-1-1 ringing into the janator closet of a police station. If I read about widespread and systemic problems of POTS 9-1-1 not being routed properly, I would certainly test it.

If the 9-1-1 call center operator gets pissed because I took 10 seconds of their time, to bad, let them fine me. I'm forced to pay into the system...I'm going to know whether it works like it's supposed to.

10 seconds might not be a problem, call 10 times, you will be going to jail.

he stated he tested his 911 once after a report, someone else jumped the gun and suggested he try it 10times to see what happens.

reply to dispatcher21
Exactly. This isn't about harrassing and disrupting 9-1-1 operators (does it work yet, does it work yet, does it work yet). It's a 1 time thing for a provider (in my case Vonage) who had shown a pattern of not properly forwarding 9-1-1 calls.

reply to Ebolla
My point was, some things you don't or shouldn't "test". As scary as it is, you have to trust that it just works. How many people test a fire sprinkler system ?? How 'bout draining the oil from their car to see if the oil light comes on ??

When 911 service was first started, did it work 100% ?? I suspect not... And we're dealing with POTS back then. If 911 is of any importance to anyone, take your chances with VOIP and similar phone services. They're still in their infancy and still have bugs to work out. You'd think E911 would be an absolute priority though.

WRONG!

Of course fire sprinker system installers test their systems after installation. Same with alarm monitoring systems. And I run little chance of death if the oil drains out of my car. Maybe a $5000 Haz-Mat fine, but that is why I use a new washer and a torque wrench on my drain plug instead of a calibrated wrist.

Sorry. If Verizon, Vonage, Time Warner, or anyone else that I have shows a pattern of problems with routing 9-1-1 calls to the 9-1-1 call center...it's gonna get a quick test and if it fails they're gone.

reply to ColorBASIC
"Testing" the system is ok, but use it VERY sparingly and by sparingly I mean maybe once every few years.

If you dial 9-1-1 simply tell the operator that this is a Non-Emergency Call, you have new phone service, and you wanted to make sure you can get through to 9-1-1 in the event of an emergency. Most, if not all, 9-1-1 operators are nice (at least when I call they are).

In any event DO NOT hang up if 9-1-1 goes through and DO NOT "test" the system often. If you hang up and the operator can't get back through the police will come-a-knockin. If you call multiple times or prank call (or the operator thinks you are prank calling) that will warrant the police to visit as well.
--
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons..." - T.S Eliot
Ma Blog »www.johndball.com

reply to Hall

reply to ColorBASIC
When I test our security system, it sends a test signal to Brinks and waits for a response. That's a lot different than "testing" by intentionally triggering the alarm or pushing one of the emergency buttons and waiting for the police to show up.

reply to ColorBASIC
Before testing 911, I called the general information number of the police department and requested permission to call 911 for a test and asked what would be a good time. They were completely fine with that.

Stu

reply to Hall
Most emergency communications centers have, or should have policies to conduct a test of a phone line's ability to access the 911 network. My former ECC's policy was to call the non emergency number and request a test "slot". The dispatcher would make sure there were resources to conduct the test, get the callers information *name, number, address...* and then tell the caller to conduct the test.
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Para Bellum!!

reply to quatrix
A correct way would be to arm the system, trigger all sensors if possible or rotate weekly, wait for the call center to get it and call you, you can put it into test mode so their people know you're testing. This is not a complete test because you're not having the call center call the police but that is different. I haved tested my 911 with sunrocket and vonage a couple time. I recommend everyone does. All operators that I have spoken to understood completely and were very curtious about it.

My alarm has a self diagnostic mode...supposedly. According to my ViaTalk call logs it also dials in every day. I don't know why. Maybe to check line quality. When the alarm company found out that I was using VoIP they said they were going to make some changes, maybe this was one of them.

Still if you're not testing a sensor but an actual trigger then it is not a full test. nextalarm.com monitors over the internet through real polling (every 5 min) so if your line gets cut then you will be notified. I also pay them about $11 a month, interested?

I don't know what else it tests. The only backup it has is cellular backup. It's not connected to my home network or anything.

reply to stufried

reply to Smokey
I live in a town of 10,000 people. I called the non emergency number and ask to speak to the chief of police. I told him we have VOIP in our town and it's new so I would like to test the e911 service. He didn't have a problem with it at all. I called 911 and the call work fine. Came up with my name and address.