slushpupie at gmail.com wrote: > On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 20:06:05 -0600, Sam MacDonald <smac at visi.com> wrote: > >>I have kids so having a phone in the house at all times is important. >>Qwest is more expensive when you don't have a phone line ($33.00) > > > Something for people to remember when doing VoIP phones is that 911 > services is not supported in all areas yet. I think most of the twin > cities area is, though. For some people this isnt a concern- but if > you have kids in your house, you want them to be able to dial 911 and > have it work when they need it (hopfully they never will- I never did) > > Jay > > This is a pretty important point for people to know. Here's a quote from http://vonage.com/features.php?feature=911 "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 traditional 911 calls. Also, 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." A few years ago I sat with my friend at the MECC (Minneapolis Emergency Communication Center), he's a 911 operator there. They have several people staffing the emergency 911 lines and maybe one person on the non-emergency line. There seemed to be a significant difference in the resources that these to operators had immediately available to them. What it comes down to is: if you call 911 using Vonage "you will need to state the nature of your emergency promptly and clearly, including your location and telephone number" so that they can *transfer* *your* *call* to the emergency 911 operators. In an emergency, seconds count and this delay may be a minute or more. -- Eric (Rick) Meyerhoff