Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) enables individuals to place a telephone call over the Internet using a broadband connection from any area code, regardless of their geographic location. The use of this service has been increasing for several years.
Until now, VoIP service did not allow a caller to place a "traditional" emergency 9-1-1 call. In particular, 9-1-1 operators did not receive the same identification information from a call on a VoIP as they do on a call from a traditional land line or a cell phone. As a result, 9-1-1 operators could not automatically determine the phone number or location of the caller.
Working with Vonage Holdings Corp. (broadband telephony provider), Rhode Island's E9-1-1 Executive Director Raymond LaBelle asked his technical consultant, AK Associates, to engineer a system to capture the same information from Internet broadband calls that is currently available from traditional phone and cell phone calls.
As a result, emergency calls from Rhode Island Vonage Internet broadband customers will now include both ANI (Automatic Number Identification) and ALI (Automatic Location Identification), which automatically identify the caller's registered number and location. This system will promote a faster and more accurate response for emergency services.
Rhode Island was the first state in the nation to successfully implement a system that allowed the same information to be captured from emergency cell phone calls.
Director LaBelle said that he expects that other VoIP service providers will format their services to allow their subscribers to access Rhode Island E9-1-1 in the traditional manner.
The State of Rhode Island did not incur any additional equipment costs or update fees in developing and implementing this cutting-edge technology.
