Explain e911 v regular 911?

Question

considering going to voip and wonder about how a emergancy call will be handled.,

Answer 1

911 vs. e911 is more of an issue now days because more people are using alternative means of making phone calls.

It used to be that all telephones were landline and hard wired by copper to your house.  Your phone number was essentially tied to your address.  911 service recognized your phone number, and your phone number was tied to your physical address by virtue of your normal telephone service.

But even then 911 often required the caller to verbally give their address they were calling from.

But, then came along cell phones.  Now cell phones are "mobile".  So now how does 911 operator know from where you are calling from?  Your could be calling from anywhere in the city, or the country, for that matter.  So, you still had to give your location from where your emergency is.

Now, there is VoIP phone services.  Again, with VoIP you can carry a phone number anwhere you travel and still have that phone number tied to your VoIP account.  So, now how is the operator supposed to know from where you are calling from?  So, standard 911 always requires the caller to verbally confirm their address or location the call is originating from.

E911 differs from traditional 911 in that e911 will "electronically transmit" to the 911 operator your address of record.  If your VoIP phone service is for your home phone service, then your registered home address will be the address of record sent to the 911 operator.

The problem arises for e911 VoIP subscribers when they move to a new address, still using the same VoIP service, but didn't advise the VoIP service provider of their address change.  Now, if they have an emergency and dial 911, their VoIP e911 service will transmit the "old address" on record to 911 operator and emergency services are dispatched to the wrong address.

This is why it is imperative that VoIP subscribers keep their e911 address of residence up dated at all times.

Most VoIP services now have an online form that you are required to maintian with your current address of residence.  Just remember to keep it current...

Answer 2

Supposedly E911 will provide addressing when the call come into emergency service. That used to be the norm for 911, but cellular and private systems could not perform and E911 was created to cure the problem... I think.

Answer 3

E911 is Enhanced 911.  Meaning we get address, call back number, subscriber name, and the public safety agencies that handle that address.

Regular 911 would mean that a caller has the ability to call 911 and the 911 center gets no info, that is very rare for landline calls.

Cellular 911 calls come in 1 of 3 ways:

1) The 911 center gets no info... Phase 0

2) The 911 center gets the cell phones call back number...Phase I

3) The 911 center gets the callback nnumber and coordinates with a possible location plotting on their mapping software... Phase II

Most 911 centers in the country have either Phase I or Phase II now.

VOIP calls can also be routed to 911 trunks where the 911 center can get the address the subscriber gave their VOIP service provider, but as the other poster said if that info is not up to date then that could be trouble.  But a 911 call taker should always verify location regardless of where the call comes in from.