Verizon Asked to Probe ‘Alarming’ Dropped 911 Calls

Yikes, that is no joke. The 911 system is very reliable, but is not 100%. My few times calling 911, I have had varied results. Mainly in Buffalo calling 911 from my cell, I had issues with call routing. When there was a fire in my building, I called 911, and since my apartment complex was located near a cell tower that also serves an interstate highway, the call was routed to the state police, who then transferred the call to local PD, who then transferred the call to local FD. Totally unacceptable.

Another time in upstate NY, I had to call 911 to report being in an accident. The call was of very low quality and the state PD could not get a location fix from my call. No one responded until an officer happened to be traveling in the other direction turned around to help. (no injuries, other than my car)

A few months back here in Michigan, AT&T had a MAJOR 911 outage that lasted for several hours. Much of southern lower Michigan, 9 entire counties, had no 911 service. (http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1095005/pg1)

 

What happened? I thought Verizon never dropped calls.

 

I think these would actually be blocked calls.

 

A Woman Almost Died in Her Burning House Because of Verizon’s Dropped 911 Calls

Casey Chan — A Woman Almost Died in Her Burning House Because of Verizon's Dropped 911 CallsVerizon recently dropped over 10,000 911 calls because of a blizzard in Maryland. One of those dropped calls ended with a woman almost dying and her home burning down.

It's amazing that the woman made it out alive. Carmela D'Antuono, a 94-year-old woman, had fallen down her stairs during the blizzard and was trapped inside her burning home. It wasn't until neighbors felt the heat of the fire that they tried to find help. Unfortunately, they were all using Verizon phones to call, which obviously couldn't get through to 911 (landlines were out because of the blizzard). The neighbors had to shovel snow out of the way, run in the house and save the woman themselves.

A Woman Almost Died in Her Burning House Because of Verizon's Dropped 911 CallsThe police and fire department didn't arrive until half an hour later, which would've changed the happy ending of this story. Thankfully, an unfortunate situation, such as this one, brought out the heroism in everyday people. And hopefully more resources will be dedicated by the networks to prevent situations like this from happening again.

Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide

 

I've only had to use 911 on my cell a few time without any problem.

They better figure the problem out soon, though. This is NOT acceptable. :nono:

 

I'm really interested in the outcome of the investigation. However, if landlines are down, how reasonable is it to expect that cell towers still have their connections up too?

I'd be really upset if 10,000 911 calls were blocked but 10,000 personal calls went through.

 

The wireless network does get overwhelmed when landlines are down. But I'm curious as to how many of the dropped/blocked calls were made on older cell phones that didn't have the current E911 technology?

I know that my husband's grandmother refuses to upgrade to a newer phone - the one she uses is a minimum of 6 years old, as she thinks they are more difficult to push the buttons, doesn't want all the extra menus. Since she is on AT&T, she just moves her SIM card from the new phone they tell her she has to upgrade to back to her old phone.

 

cell phone e911 never is as certain as a landline. I think it still goes to the state police instead of the locals...causing a delay in response time.