TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: System Would Allow 911 Checks

System Would Allow 911 Checks

Lisa Minter (lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com)
Mon, 20 Dec 2004 12:49:18 -0500

http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_18928007.shtml

Verification service not yet available in Wisconsin

By Duke Behnke
Post-Crescent staff writer

A national company with expertise in emergency communications has
developed an automated system that would enable telephone customers to
verify the accuracy of their 911 information.

The system, however, is not available through SBC Wisconsin, the
telephone company that manages 911 databases in Outagamie, Waupaca and
Winnebago counties.

"We have not tested this technology, and it currently is not available
in any Wisconsin community," SBC spokesman Howard Riefs said this past
week. "Its very much in its infancy."

Intrado Inc. of Longmont, Colo., unveiled 911Plus Info Check in
November as a means for telephone customers to self-validate their 911
information, which public service agencies use to dispatch emergency
personnel.

Earlier this year, The Post-Crescent found that telecommunicators in
the four counties around Appleton uncover an average of 200 data
errors each year, ranging from a wrong digit in a house number to
missing information and wrong communities. Some result in emergency
crews being dispatched to the wrong address.

The newspaper began investigating the issue in January after
paramedics mistakenly were sent to a Menasha address while a Neenah
man died of a heart attack at his home.

With the new system, telephone customers call a special number and
follow a few steps for security and privacy protection to hear the 911
address on record for their phone number.

If the information is wrong, callers can report the inaccuracy through
the system.

Full story at:
http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_18928007.shtml

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