Comcrash Internet service outages a bad omen for VoIP customer support?

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Comcast has e911, there'll be no confusion there

Comcast VOIP was not affected.

You do bring up a good point though not in the way you intended. VOIP support services from MOST companies fail to mention that they don't have e911 emergency services. This is usually one of those * next to the feature which requires the user to look for what the meaning is. Even then the precise meaning of less than true 911 service is often obscurred.

This has resulted in the state of Texas suing Vonage while Canada has ordered all VOIP services there to provide true 911support in 90 days or shut down.

Some companies that claim to have 911 support have a call center which is supposed to relay the calls to the correct area. But this functions ONLY if the subscriber has provided this information. The onus is on the customer.

Comcast does provide true e911 support and also is TDD compatible. How many VOIP services do this?

Comcast VOIP also operates when the residence power fails. Few Voip services can do this.

So your question as to what kind of service users can expect of Comcast VOIP (which is already in existence, not in the future as you seem to think) is that they won't have the shock of dying from a heart attack if they dial 911 and no one responds due to not knowing their location. The Comcast system relays this, with no input needed from the customer.

This is a major concern for myself and most of my family. The general failings of VOIP services to provide a 911 service that is reliable and doesn't require user input and maintenance is going to be a major issue as more people find that their 911 calls are NOT routed to a true 911 office but to an intermediate office who has to rely on user provided and maintained data to dispatch emergency services.

Most VOIP 911 services are opt in where the user must act to make them work and must also act if they move around or change residences.

So in this regard Comcast VOIP users do get far better support than the vast majority of VOIP providers since they won't have the false security of a partial 911 implementation or loss of service during residential power outages.

I'm sure that there will always be people who complain about not receiving accurate information, there always have been. But I don't think this will be a problem with Comcast e911 service or the emergency services it supports.

So the answer to your title is that Comcast VOIP is inherently user friendly, there'll be no confusion when the sub dials 911, they will get their emergency help.

The same cannot be said of most ISPs or most VOIP services. Why don't you know this?

Posted by: SteamEngineer   Posted on: 04/16/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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