Comment on Colorado: to test the 911 service, you must first place a normal call to the 911 center. WTF, they don’t think you might be unable to do that?

Janx@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

• debanqued@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  I’m confused what you think a better alternative would be? If there was a test number, what if that worked, but you couldn’t call the real 911?

  A test number would suffice in some situations. When an incompetent VOIP provider takes an action to block calls “for security purposes”, they cannot block /all/ calls. 911 calls must be permitted. And 911 test calls would obviously require the same status. If their call blocking allows a 911 test number through, it proves that their blockade is not blocking /everything/.

  A test number would not be the only solution. With some services you can set the CID to whatever you want. So in principle a CID of 555-1212 could have special meaning to 911 receiptionists.

  911 is not always answered by humans. When answered by a machine, there could be a cancel code. E.g. dial “119” after connecting to cancel it.

  There’s no way around it: to be absolutely sure your phone can contact 911, you have to… dial 911.

  Sure, if you need that extra level of certainty.

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  • locuester@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    You’ve complicated this. They say to contact them on non-emergent line to make sure it’s a good time for a test. What problem do you think you’re solving?

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  • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Sounds like a bunch of good solution. Have you considered proposing those to the people who can actually implement them?

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