| One downside I see... No 911 service at this time. I have two children and that does concern me a bit. I guess I could program the police, fire, doctors, poison control, etc on speed dial.
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In God we trust, all others pay cash. |
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| This Is Where The FCC Will Regulate - 911 Service You very well should do that. Not having 911 service is a huge minus for Vonage...the FCC will eventually (and rightfully so) mandate it and this is Vonage will have serious challenges to overcome. Imagine that, having to set up networks to every 911 call center in the country where Vonage has presence. This will get very ugly and costly for them.
Another point....the service will only work if a broadband connection is available and it is a proven fact that broadband service reliability does not compare in reliability of dial tone from the local telco.
I can easily remember when my broadband and cable service wasn't available (and at times for several hours)...I can't remember the last time I picked up my home telephone and it didn't have dial tone due to the telco's fault.
[text was edited by author 2003-02-26 12:24:24] |
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 Go Chargers7Fa Shizzle Ma NizzlePremium
join:2002-09-24
Huntington Beach, CA | You must not have Verizon. I had regular dialtone outages with Verizon.
As for E911, the workaround is as easy as programming the Fire/Police/Medical quickdials on most phones to your local offices. Works for me, and kids understand the pictures.
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When yer a pioneer, you're bound to get a few arrows in the butt. |
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| reply to cmcgilton
Having a cell phone would also be an alternative. Between my wife and I we have two. I the case of a fire it would be better to grab it and get out or if there was someone in the house you can hide in a closet and dial 911.
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If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. - Lin Yutang |
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| Cell phones are great for that.......I wonder if it will work for my house. My house is setup with devices that I can call in remotely and turn things off and on through my phone line ..............and also I have this security system by alarm tec that needs monitoring.....does anyone who has vonage hooked this stuff up and if so does it work well with other applications.
Also, what I remember with my cable and I have with my DSL, I had to sometimes reboot the cable modem to gain connectivity back.
Has anyone experience any problems with this because there is no information for these application on the website.
[text was edited by author 2003-02-26 12:58:21] |
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| reply to cmcgilton
From what I am gathering from your comments is that "Vonage" is inferior to dialton. I dont understand!
You cant compare vonage to dial tone like say in the 70's and 80's with sony beta and a vcr and that the VCR remainded the standard and beta got phased out!
There could be some promise here!
I am hoping for regulation of bother monopolies! |
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Go Chargers7Fa Shizzle Ma NizzlePremium
join:2002-09-24
Huntington Beach, CA | reply to Mr_Hanky00
Modem reboots are a modem firmware issue. That doesn't have anything to do with Vonage.
As for your security system, it will work with VoIP. I have both residential and business DSC systems and both work fine with VoIP. The Cisco box provides dialtone just like POTS does. The devices, whether they're alarms, fax machines, or your automated equipment, won't know if they're on POTS or VoIP. They'll just work.
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When yer a pioneer, you're bound to get a few arrows in the butt. |
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 jjoshuaPremium
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ
kudos:1 | reply to Go Chargers7
The point with 911 is not that you can make the call, it's that the dispatcher can automatically know your physical location. |
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Go Chargers7Fa Shizzle Ma NizzlePremium
join:2002-09-24
Huntington Beach, CA | They don't with cellular...the point of 911 isn't that they know where you are...it's that it's an easy number to remember during an emergency and the dispatcher can dispatch police, fire, paramedics with a single call. The fact that from a land line phone they know where you are is just a bonus.
If the issue was knowing where you are...why have E911 with cellular?
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When yer a pioneer, you're bound to get a few arrows in the butt. |
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| reply to Go Chargers7
I understand that this is not vonage's problem. This kind of problem happens mainly when my computer sits idle or maybe if I wake up I find I have to reboot. I understand that network connectivity is not as relialble as a hard pair of wire.
I would be afraid to get rid of my vz line because of the high crime rate in the niehborhood and the amount of out of town trips I take. I really count on this system while I am away. I could not afford access my ITT panel or most of all, have a fire and alarm tech not roll the truck because my modem needed rebooted.
I am seriously thinking about this but I have to see more studies first to satisfy me. But this may no be for me.
You post like you work for them! I wonder if you do, Could you bring this to their atttention and maybe they can give us some idea's on how to intergrate this into our lives.
I would appreciate it!
Mr. Hanky00
[text was edited by author 2003-02-26 13:53:57]
[text was edited by author 2003-02-26 13:54:41] |
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Go Chargers7Fa Shizzle Ma NizzlePremium
join:2002-09-24
Huntington Beach, CA
| I don't work for them, I'm just happy with their service and sick of ILEC shills coming up with every reason under the sun as to why we should support the anti-trust activies of the ILECs, specifically the RBOCs. As for your alarm system, you could always get a DSC cellular backup module for it...if you were set on getting rid of your POTS. That's what I have (a unit with built in cellular backup).
As for your modem issues, that's not a provider (unless you rent the modem) or VoIP issue. If you have connectivity problems you wouldn't want to rely on the service...just like me. Seems to me the issue is your modem. Motorola 4200's seem to have that problem, although my Moto hasn't done it.
As for my ILEC, my POTS was so bad that I couldn't fax or use DUN. I couldn't rely on POTS to permit my alarm monitoring to work correctly. Of course the ILEC didn't care. They would roll a truck and say yep, gotta escalate it. Or better they would blame my inside wiring until I pointed out I paid extra for inside wire mantanence. Of course it wasn't the issue. I replaced all the old telco wire with CAT5 and it worked perfectly...zero noise. After the "escalation" I would wait a few months and it's still not fixed. Yet the WO would magically be closed as resolved...without contacting me or even bothering so see if it worked.
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When yer a pioneer, you're bound to get a few arrows in the butt.
[text was edited by author 2003-02-26 14:12:26] |
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 Derek_WildstarWhy the fck is Shane walking in there?
join:2001-02-24
Iscandar | reply to Go Chargers7
said by Go Chargers7:
They don't with cellular...the point of 911 isn't that they know where you are...it's that it's an easy number to remember during an emergency and the dispatcher can dispatch police, fire, paramedics with a single call. The fact that from a land line phone they know where you are is just a bonus.
If the issue was knowing where you are...why have E911 with cellular?
Actually, jjoshua is right. Only half of the E911 initiative is having the easy 3-digit dialing; the other half involves providing accurate address information for 911 dispatchers that shows up instantly on their monitors once the call is connected. When I worked for one of the RBOCs some years ago, we had to completely revamp our address system in order to ensure E911 accuracy for brand new subscribers (meaning people who have never had wireline service at a particular location because of new construction). Rural addresses that used to just be a box number now had to have a physical street address. Those new connects were always the biggest pain-in-the-@$$.
As far as having E911 with cellular, it's more of just tapping into what people already know. Everyone in the USA knows that, in an emergency, you dial 911. The last thing that I heard was that they were talking about putting GPS into all new cell phones sometime soon to more accurately triangulate location for E911 services. I haven't heard much about that lately, though.
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I use conjecture and hearsay. Those are kinds of evidence. - Lionel Hutz |
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| Cablevision Systems Corp. has launched a similar VoIP service, called Optimum Voice that has 911.
»www.newtelephony.com/news/542.html
It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds over the next few months.
Paul |
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Go Chargers7Fa Shizzle Ma NizzlePremium
join:2002-09-24
Huntington Beach, CA | I'm for getting E911...it's just not THAT big an issue for me. In another forum RBOC fans were making this a big deal and one of their main planks in their pro-RBOC platform...I just don't see it. VoIP rocks.
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When yer a pioneer, you're bound to get a few arrows in the butt. |
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| I think Vonage will be OK, they tell you that you cant dial 911 so you know what to expect. E911 and IP have no standards at this time and i'm sure something will get worked out, Vonage does still use the PSTN. |
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