Vonage and 911

Reuters reports a incident last month in Houston where a husband and wife were shot and wounded by burglars while their daughter tried to call 911 on a Vonage line and reached a recording. The daughter had to use a neighbor's phone to reach authorities.

Vonage and similar companies use voice-over-Internet Protocol, or VOIP, to transmit phone calls over high-speed Internet connections at lower prices than traditional telephone service.

But independent VOIP providers typically do not have access to the traditional 911 system maintained by local telephone companies. Those systems not only carry calls to emergency dispatchers, but also transmit data about the caller's location and run separately from the regular telephone network.

As a work-around, Vonage tells customers they need to activate a 911 service. When used, that service directs calls to the administrative telephone lines in the nearest emergency center -- a lower-priority line that in some cases goes unanswered.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has ruled that states do not have the authority to force Vonage to offer the same 911 service as traditional telephone companies. Cable companies that offer VOIP service typically provide regular 911 calling, using prior agreements with telephone companies.

ZDNet reported Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said he’s sued Vonage for not being clear about the limitations of its 911 service.

The complaint claims that Vonage is being vague about the fact that users are not being adequately told on sign-up that they must go through a separate sign-up procedure to obtain Vonage’s free 911 service.

If you use Vonage for your phone service you need to be aware of its limitations regarding 911. Don't wait for an emergency to learn the hard way.