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Speed Dial for 911

Started by gobigred, February 22, 2012, 08:33:25 AM

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gobigred

It would be really helpful to configure the OBi to allow a speed dial setting for "911" (where you don't have to use the # key).  It would be nice if an OBi owner could program that speed dial sequence to a 10 digit number for their local emergency communications center on this page - http://www.obitalk.com/obinet/pg/obhdev/speeddial.  It could be at the top of this page in red.  The only caution would be for people to remember that it only works to call the specific emergency communications center that you program in.  So if you take your OBi with you to another city, state or country, you're still going to get the same place unless you change the speed dial.  With the way the OBi is configured now, the closest I can get is using speed dial location #91.  I would think most U.S. locales have a 10-digit number.  I was able to call our local emergency officials to obtain one.

Stewart

The OBi already has this capability -- see http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=2319.0 .  You should test that it works as intended.  Get permission first, by calling your police non-emergency number.  When you make the "911" test call, immediately tell the dispatcher that there is no emergency and confirm that you reached the correct center.

However, I strongly advise you to get real 911 service.  It's as little as $0.80 per month from Anveo, or $1.50 from Callcentric (with a much longer track record for reliability).  Real 911 can get you help if you are unable to speak (stroke, choking, etc.), don't wish to speak (intruder in house, calling surreptitiously in a robbery), or the call is made by a guest, babysitter or worker in your home who doesn't know your address.

The SIP service that you'll have for 911 will also serve as a backup to GV, be useful for determining whether a problem is provider related, and allow for interoperation with many useful other services.

gobigred

    Thanks for the additional info.  I'm not an expert user of my OBi100.  That's why I was hoping for an easy setup on the speed dial page for those of us not into programming all the cool things the OBi boxes can do.
    We have two Google Voice numbers that we use on our OBi100 so it looks like we would need an extra OBi to set up the service with the providers you mentioned or would have to port a GV number to another service.
     We considered going cell phone only like a lot of people so I'm not overly concerned about not having direct 911 service from our "land line" (VOIP) but it would be a nice feature if it's possible to update the OBis to do it like I mentioned.