Stephan, Immediately upon moving into a new neighborhood, my wife misdialed (9 for outside access, thinking she was at the office), 1 (ld access) and then 1 again by mistake. Much to her surprise, she heard an operator say "911" through the receiver. She told the operator she had made a mistake and that everything was fine. Didn't matter... 911 rules say that if you call, they have to dispatch. The police officer arrived while the Welcome Wagon lady was in our living room sipping tea.
Doug -----Original Message----- From: Stephan Monette [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 11:26 AM To: Toronto Asterisk UG Subject: Re: [on-asterisk] 911 tragedy in Calgary reveals perils of VoIP Hey everyone, Does ComWave have their own call center for 911 services or do they sub-contract another call center for 911 services like most Canadian VoIP providers? Our 911 call center treats the 911 calls like this: 1- First, all 911 calls are recorded and review if there's any issues or dispute later on. 2- 911 agent receives the call and ask the user what is needed: fire, ambulance or security. 3- Meanwhile, the 911 agent reads the address displayed on their computer screen. 4- Once the user specify what they need, the agent confirms the address before dispatching the proper service to the user (to make sure they send the service to the right address). This step only takes a few seconds. If there's no address on the screen, the 911 agent will ask the user for the exact address and this will take longer to connect the call. So in this case with the family from Calgary, the 911 agent would have confirmed the address with the user before dispatching the ambulance. Hopefully, the user knows the family civic address and is able to communicate it to the 911 agent. If the 911 agent cannot confirm the address with the user, the agent will send the ambulance to the registered address from the database (last known good address). If the 911 agent never asked to confirmed the address with the caller before dispatching the ambulance, the phone company may be held liable for this negligence with their 911 procedure (this is just my personal opinion!). But hopefully, they have recorded the 911 call and show exactly how the call was handled. 5- If the user can't communicate, the dispatcher will send the police to the address in the database (last known good address). One issue I have with my current 911 call center (same as everyone else by the way) is if they receive a 911 call and the call gets disconnected, the agent will send the police to the address on file. This is fine but I would rather want to confirm by calling back the user and cancel the police dispatch if this was an error. The Agent never calls back the phone number on the display. Same thing happens when the 911 agent receives a call with no address on the screen and the call gets disconnected, the 911 Agent contacts our customer service to get the address instead of calling back the user from the number on the callerid. This procedure is very lengthy. This procedure creates huge delay and I wish the 911 call center would change their procedures regarding disconnected calls. I wish they would call back the number on the callerid to confirm if everything is OK and if the user needs any assistance. The 911 agent should call our customer service only as the last resort if they do not get any answer when calling back the user. We do ask our customers to register their address for each number, but most of them don't bother and it's a scary thought. Maybe we should all get together (VoIP providers) and put pressure with our 911 call center to modify their procedures. Any thought? Stephan Monette Unlimitel Inc. Tel.: 613-688-6212. x221 TF : 1-877-464-6638, x221 FAX : 613-482-1077 Dave Bour wrote: > There's two things here that could have helped. > 1. Database linkage of billing address to emergency address. Had that changed, it would or should raise a flag to investigate. > 2. GeoIP tracking has been around for a long time. The registrar could again have a flag to pick up such....granted if someone moves two blocks, not likely this would have helped. In this case, a cross country move could have been picked by a GeoIP flag. > So this raises a question though about liability and such for voice services providers. Where do we stand. How much insurance should we have? > > Dave Bour > Desktop Solution Center > 905.381.0077 X501 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > For people who just want IT to work > > Business http://www.desktopsolutioncenter.ca > Personal http://www.davebour.com > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Bill Sandiford [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 1:29 AM >> To: Dave Bour >> Subject: Re: [on-asterisk] 911 tragedy in Calgary reveals perils of >> VoIP >> >> This has already happened a few times in the US. If my memory serves >> me >> correctly, Vonage has (had) law suits against them in Florida and Texas >> for >> 911 issues. >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Dave Bour" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: "Ansar Mohammed" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> >> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 11:40 PM >> Subject: RE: [on-asterisk] 911 tragedy in Calgary reveals perils of >> VoIP >> >> >> Wondered how long this would take. Going to be a lot of noise over >> this >> one. >> D. >> >> Dave Bour >> Desktop Solution Center >> 905.381.0077 X501 >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> For people who just want IT to work >> >> Business http://www.desktopsolutioncenter.ca >> Personal http://www.davebour.com >> >> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: Ansar Mohammed [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 11:39 PM >>> To: [email protected] >>> Subject: [on-asterisk] 911 tragedy in Calgary reveals perils of VoIP >>> >>> >>> >>> "TORONTO AND CALGARY - An ambulance was dispatched in response to a >>> >> 911 >> >>> call >>> about a toddler in distress, but the Internet phone service said >>> paramedics >>> went to the address it had on file - a home in Mississauga - not the >>> new >>> home in Calgary where the distraught family waited in vain for help." >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080501.wphone02/BN >> >>> Story >>> /National/?page=rss >>> >>> >> <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080501.wphone02/B >> >>> NStor >>> y/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080501.wphone02> >>> &id=RTGAM.20080501.wphone02 >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
