I have a VOIP service through Primus, which I absolutely love. For $35/month, I get call display, call waiting, voicemail, unlimited l/d within North America and virtual access to all my phone controls along with email notification of any voicemail left. I have been using this service for the better part of 5 years and have never been tempted to change -- even though our new house also comes with a year's worth of Rogers Home Phone service (which we are not intending to hook up).
Although Primus' VOIP service is fairly comprehensive, there is one element sadly missing, simply due to the technical limitations inherent to the technology -- 911 service is not available.
I was told from the very start, that I could not use 911 service because my phone number did not have a physical location for emergency dispatch to refer to. I was told that...and every month I receive a bill which reminds me of that. Still, when faced with the sudden and troubling disappearance of my 3-year-old daughter from my home, in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, I instinctively ran to the phone and frantically dialed those 3 faithful numbers, to no avail.
Fortunately, I had nothing to fear -- other than my daughter's savage independence -- when I found that she had not been insidiously scooped up by some interloper with ill intentions, but had rather quietly slipped on her shoes and taken herself on the short walk to the park, instead of waiting for me to get out of the bathroom.
I was very lucky. Apparently, some have not been so lucky...
Edmonton's emergency services have issued a warning about the use of voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) phone service following the death of a Calgary toddler.
Eighteen-month-old Elijah Luck died after his family called 911 over a VoIP phone and the ambulance was dispatched to their former home in Ontario instead of their current home in Calgary.
Something like this is genuinely such a senseless tragedy. I certainly understand this family's feeling of helpless futility, in the face of their son's death. But it is important to keep in perspective that the company providing the family's phone service was not negligent or in any way responsible for what happened here. His parents had the same responsibility as I had, when I made my own ill-fated call -- to ensure no time was wasted, getting emergency service on behalf of their child's safety.
After the furor surrounding my daughter's disappearance had died down, I spent a lot of time berating myself for the momentary lapse in memory which inadvertently delayed emergency assistance --a lapse which could have made a significant difference in the outcome of my daughter's safety. I knew the limitations of my service. I was constantly reminded of it. And in a moment of panic and desperation, I lost my head and forgot the one thing that could make all the difference.
It is for this reason, I am disappointed to hear rumblings of blame and warning about the service. As if additional regulations or encouraging parents to avoid using a service which is inexpensive, versatile and effective when used properly, would compensate for what amounts to nothing more than lack of diligence. Instead of placing the onus on technology companies to accommodate to the 911 system, perhaps the time has come for the 911 system to make some changes to bring them up to speed with rapidly changing technologies -- in much the same way as was done when cellular use became commonplace. And while we are at it, why don't we continue to encourage consumers to educate themselves about the services they rely on and train themselves to remember the limitation of those services -- and modify emergency plans to accommodate?
Or perhaps we could simply train 911 operators to confirm the address first, before dispatching an ambulance, which would have made all the difference for Elijah and his family.
