paul@uunet.uu.net> (04/10/90)
In article <5826@accuvax.nwu.edu> levin@bbn.com (Joel B. Levin) writes: >I don't expect to see a state-wide (area-code-wide, LATA-wide, they're >all the same for me) 911 coverage for quite some time unless some >changes are made. > [non-uniform dialing in different exchanges...] >Until they get together and resolve this kind of problem there won't >be any universal 911 for all of 603 (or even the southern NH area). >This is complicated by the fact that there are a lot of towns in NH, >including two covered by the Nashua phone book, that have independent >phone companies. N.E.T. WANTS to sell N.H. a statewide, E-911 system; They would like SOMEONE [State of N.H., probably] to set up the P.S.A.P. and relay all calls to the proper agencies. This is not meeting with immediate accepance: Most municipal and county fire and police agencies have their own dispatch facilities or are tied in with area-wide dispatch centers (including some existing basic 911); A central PSAP would add new costs, proceedures, delays, and another level of hardware-software-wetware subject to Murphy's Law; The lookup database, including UNIFORM streets and numbers [largely not existing now] is also mentioned as a sine-qua-non. I have wondered why a slightly lower-tech solution utilizing existing facilities could not be a valid, interim solution: 1. Require 9-1-1 calls to be routed to a location specified by the municipal authority for the origin of the call; N.H. law already specifies different billing for in-town [free local calling] and out-of-town calls, and they can deliver 1+ calls to different LD providers on a per-number basis, so it should be possible to deliver 911 to the proper answering point. 2. Provide calling number I.D.; some existing 911 systems here would be happy just to get this feature; databases could be built up as needed, correlating existing info with Telco info. There would be some operational and technical problems to be solved here, but it seems to me far fewer than there would be to implement one statewide system, all at once, at least in N.H. Paul S. Sawyer uunet!unh!unhtel!paul paul@unhtel.UUCP UNH Telecommunications attmail!psawyer p_sawyer@UNHH.BITNET Durham, NH 03824-3523 VOX: 603-862-3262 FAX: 603-862-2030