Re: 911:: one-way phones

[Guest guest]

A lot of pay phones in our area won't take incoming calls either because of

all the drug dealers that used to use them. Now the dealers all have cell

phones so I think they could change the phones back. Or find a way so a 9-1-1

operator at least could call.

Tammy

[Guest guest]

The one-way pay phone calls are an interesting illustration in technology

sometimes moving us backwards!!!

Vermont just went to a statewide enhanced 911 system a little over a year

ago. Prior to that, there were quite a few departments that had basic 911

(no ALI/ANI information).

With Basic 911, once a call was answered, it remained active until the call

taker disconnected. If the caller hung up, all we had to do was hit the

switchhook and it would ring on the other end. This included one-way pay

phones and left-in dial tones at vacant numbers. It worked extremely well.

With Enhanced 911, once a caller hangs up, it is only reconnected by the

call taker redialling the number. It does not work for one-way pay phones

or left-in dial tones....

Ain't technology great!!!

Kristy Oxholm

U of Vermont Police

Burlington, VT

________________________________________________________________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

[Guest guest]

--- heimdalcmo@... wrote:

> A lot of pay phones in our area won't take incoming

> calls either because of

> all the drug dealers that used to use them.

With telephone company divestiture, ANYONE can put in

a pay phone nowadays. It's considered a source of

revenue. Until the laws were changed to ensure that

9-1-1 calls made from ALL public pay phones were able

to be made without payment, some were blocked to 9-1-1

(outgoing, because they were free and the owner(s) of

the pay phone(s) wanted their money for all calls.

It's usually these " off-brand " pay phones that are

blocked for incoming calls, but there are some that

are indeed blocked due to requests from schools or

other authorities (like for heavy drug traffic in the

area).

> Now the

> dealers all have cell

> phones so I think they could change the phones back.

Because " drug dealers " aren't always the reasons the

phones are blocked, this is a rather spurious reason.

<shrugging> Lots of people have no personal phone

service at all, and pay phones are their only

telephone contact with others. Large indigent

families or groups of " communities " would use the pay

phones for their own message/contact purposes. Owners

of the private pay phones wanted " their " fees for

phone usage, and would therefore block them to

incoming calls.

> Or find a way so a 9-1-1

> operator at least could call.

There's no law to force them to accept incoming calls;

they only HAVE to allow unblocked (outgoing) calls to

9-1-1.

And how is a bit of privately-owned phone equipment

supposed to " know " that " 9-1-1 " is calling back? Do

you think there is a huge database somewhere that

lists all the possible permutations of incoming

telephone numbers associated with every 9-1-1 Center

in the local area, nation or world? And this fantasy

database is accessible to anyone? Nooooooo......

After all, if a private phone in a residence can be

blocked to " Caller ID-blocked " numbers by user choice,

I think the hope for something to circumvent the

outgoing call blocks on pay phones is a bit

unrealistic.

=====

Happy to be here, proud to serve.

Olmstead

http://www.gryeyes.com

__________________________________________________