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911 Dialing
About 911 Services
With digital convergence, communication technology has refined itself and is now fully accessible. 911 services are an example of a recent telecommunication breakthrough that can provide residents of North America with seamless assistance in emergency situations. The highly skilled emergency response team will arrive with immediate placement of a 911 call from a registered wireless device or phone. As the [VoIP] service matured, enhanced 911 services are widely offered to subscribers. These services are cheaper than standard PSTN enabled emergency services while still offering the flexibility and benefits of advanced 911 services.
How the Process Works
Those who wish to benefit from 911 services in North America must be registered subscribers. Standard procedure of enrollment should be fully and accurately provided to the service provider. Subscribers will receive a confirmation of their inclusion in the service via email, within 5-7 business days from date of subscription. Once registration is complete, 911 services can be used. The following explains how 911 emergency services will operate:
• As soon as a 911 call is initiated, the system immediately identifies the caller’s physical location.
• The mapped address is automatically routed to Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)
• The information is displayed on the screen of the recipient operator
• Emergency responders can reach out to the caller without wasting any further time
Challenges
• VoIP based enhanced 911 systems may be unreliable in cases of network maintenance or failure
• The address and other information may not be updated by the subscriber and as a result emergency teams will potentially reach out to a wrong location. Such a situation is distressing both to the subscriber and to emergency teams.
• VoIP 911 services are not fully interconnected with PSAP. In order to easily interconnect with these, VoIP service providers must connect with 911 trunks.
• In case of nationwide disasters or epidemic situations response time from emergency services may be slower than usual
• Different VoIP service providers may need various adapters and specialized features in order to connect with 911 systems. This may translate to extra service charges and higher cost for subscribers.
Key Benefits
• These are highly scalable technology enabled solutions that can prove to be as efficient as traditional 911 emergency services
• As the VoIP technology matures and develops it will be integrated with GPS. As a result, the emergency site could be located using Geo-location systems on the go, allowing the emergency team to respond faster. Emergency site information can be easily shared within emergency teams for fast and accurate support on the go.
• These are free to use emergency services that can be accessed from anywhere in North America.
• Users may initiate calls from their mobile phones or wireless devices on the go easily and effortlessly.
$0.95 - per month applies.
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