Caller ID

[laurent]

A test call that isn't made from my own phone isn't quite a test call.

I'm willing to walk through the paperwork here. I really want to test 911 to confirm that I get dispatched to Montreal's emergency centers with my home address. What do I need to do?

[FONGO_kris]

I can totally understand your willingness to confirm this for yourself, however a call from our network is still a call from our network regardless of it's physical location - When testing 911 calls, we can use other routing plans to test all the areas such as Montreal, and Ontario to verify that calls from a specific DID / area code work consistently.

Simply put, we make the test calls here for you.

[laurent]

But if you do the test, then we're skipping many variables;
- will my phone work at the exact moment of the test?
- will the ATA work?
- will the dial plan allow it to be dialed?
- will FPL server be reachable?
- will everything else I don't know about also work?

I'm thankful for your offer to do a test from your network which is supposedly the same, but it's still not good enough. I don't want my 9 years old to have to spell out the street name if there's an emergency. The whole point of a test is to satistically provide data that, when it was tried as it's supposed to be used, it worked. And later, it worked again. And when it fails, we check what failed, and why. Otherwise, I could just rely on your work and take it for granted.

You know the story in, i think, Calgary 2007? A series of errors and assumptions from various people lead to the dispatch of an ambulance in the wrong province, even though the entire system worked as expected, and as planned. I know my 911 service from FPL is expected to work, that's beside the point.

Rest assured, however, our family doesn't rely only on this for emergency. I have some fully charged gsm cellphones lying around, two working cellphones, and friendly neighbors. I know that cellphones have the same address problem than voip has, that's why I want them to be backup service to the main home phone.

I'm thankful that the CRTC is imposing this 911 service as well, as I'm quite sure that we'd have next to nothing if they weren't kicking telecom providers into making something. Years ago, voip providers in canada were just going "Sorry, no 911 lol" and now they all have something in place.

So, again, who do I contact to schedule a 911 test call? Fell free to call them and say you have a stubborn customer who just won't take no for an answer.

[Funkytown]

Can we have an update to when we will be able to block our phone numbers again like before? I would like the feature added back as soon as possiable cause I prefer certain people NOT to be able to get my number for personal reasons to another.

Thanks!

[FONGO_steve]

Can we have an update to when we will be able to block our phone numbers again like before? I would like the feature added back as soon as possiable cause I prefer certain people NOT to be able to get my number for personal reasons to another.

Thanks!

Although it did work for some before, we never did officially support it. At present time there is no update on when this will be available again, but if and when it does happen, we will make sure to notify everyone.

[Funkytown]

Thanks for the update, Steve!

[FONGO_kris]

But if you do the test, then we're skipping many variables;
- will my phone work at the exact moment of the test?
- will the ATA work?
- will the dial plan allow it to be dialed?
- will FPL server be reachable?
- will everything else I don't know about also work?

I'm thankful for your offer to do a test from your network which is supposedly the same, but it's still not good enough. I don't want my 9 years old to have to spell out the street name if there's an emergency. The whole point of a test is to satistically provide data that, when it was tried as it's supposed to be used, it worked. And later, it worked again. And when it fails, we check what failed, and why. Otherwise, I could just rely on your work and take it for granted.

You know the story in, i think, Calgary 2007? A series of errors and assumptions from various people lead to the dispatch of an ambulance in the wrong province, even though the entire system worked as expected, and as planned. I know my 911 service from FPL is expected to work, that's beside the point.

Rest assured, however, our family doesn't rely only on this for emergency. I have some fully charged gsm cellphones lying around, two working cellphones, and friendly neighbors. I know that cellphones have the same address problem than voip has, that's why I want them to be backup service to the main home phone.

I'm thankful that the CRTC is imposing this 911 service as well, as I'm quite sure that we'd have next to nothing if they weren't kicking telecom providers into making something. Years ago, voip providers in canada were just going "Sorry, no 911 lol" and now they all have something in place.

So, again, who do I contact to schedule a 911 test call? Fell free to call them and say you have a stubborn customer who just won't take no for an answer.

About your query regarding testing of 9-1-1 services, and sorry it's been so long without a reply but I've been quite busy and have worked hard to answer this so that you have no more questions.

While we appreciate the concerns you have, we must caution you that only FPL personnel and their upstream providers are permitted to test the operation of 9-1-1 services. This is done in accordance with procedures determined and specified in our agreements with various parties that enable our 9-1-1 services [Public Safety Answering Points, Service Bureaus, Transit Providers, etc. ]. ‘Test’ calls from subscribers are not permitted.

Should you decide to ‘test’ 9-1-1 yourself without a genuine emergency please note that this may be considered a Terms of Service violation by FPL and that your service may be cancelled and you banned from signing up again. You also may open yourself up to action by the administrators of the PSAP you called that may include an investigation for mischief of similar.

At FPL we use the tools available to us and procedural best efforts to comply with the CRTC mandates regarding 9-1-1 for VoIP services. While we strive for accuracy and availability, as noted in your FPL Agreement, VoIP 9-1-1 may not work in the same manner as Enhanced 9-1-1 services on traditional Plain Old Telephone Service. Should you feel you require Enhanced 9-1-1, please consider subscribing to traditional Primary Exchange Service from a Local Exchange Carrier.

From our 9-1-1 T&C's (paraphrased, of course):

If Customer is not comfortable with the limitations of the FPL 9-1-1 emergency dialing [Including the inability to test service by ones self due to rules and regulations laid down by the CRTC among other parties inhibiting this on all levels], Customer should consider having an alternate means of accessing traditional 9-1-1 or Enhanced 9-1-1 services or disconnecting the Service [Beyond the means of which freephoneline is capable to ensure the customers comfortability in the services rendered].

[laurent]

Thanks for the rules clarification. That certainly will prevent me from trying to "do it anyway" and lose FPL!

However, I am far from satisfied at the current state of "internet telephone emergency service" in general. I trust FPL is doing a great job, probably even better than other voip providers, but to me, the system as a whole is still lacking in some specific areas, and that's where I'm going to voice my concerns.

That's why I went the other way around and got in touch with Montreal's police media department. They did some research and provided me with a few answers. I have yet to return the mail with more questions, there's still a few issues to discuss. I'll post here once I get the final answers.

All in all, this sounds like something I will have to take up with the CRTC itself. Clearly, until the technology is proven to be reliable, there must be a way for tests to occur in a reasonable fashion. I feel this is something that the CRTC will have to weigh in, in order to create rules or change existing regulation to permit this.

Also, note that I am not relying on your emergency service all that much. We already have several cellphones in the house that will provide reliable emergency service. Making it work on FPL is just going the extra mile

[Funkytown]

As far as I know when using VOIP anywhere the emergency call to (911) are traced automatically to the exact location of the caller threw there own ISP and it is immediately alerted to (911).

[harper36]

see over on this locked thread which I cannot reply to or directly quote:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=402&p=7317#p7317

in particular where admin wrote: "Just look how all of the sudden our CID Block started to function as it should."

CID Block is not working for me - is it working for anyone else? Has it officially been added back as a valid feature?

It hasn't been working for quite some time now and I am curious as to if FPL has a timeline for its return.

[FONGO_steve]

At present time it isn't in the short-term timeline, but it is something we will re-visit eventually when the time permits.

Unfortunately this feature was very heavily abused with 911 prank calls and had to be removed. When time permits, we will come back to this feature and see if our systems can be setup and modified to do more of a conditional CID blocking.

[Ice]

I'm in support of CID blocking. On that same note, I hate how a few people ruin it for all... whether for Freephoneline, airport (security), or other things in life.

There are several ideas I can think of, but perhaps the simplest idea is that "911" specifically forces CID to be passed. The default would allow pass-through of CID blocked/unblocked. On that same note, since all calls are logged, any abuse reported can be searched and necessarily actions can be taken against that one account holder. Along with this, perhaps CID blocking can be enabled only on Registered accounts so the average anonymous user can't just block and cause havoc on the system before it's stopped.

No matter, thanks for providing a great service!

[Funkytown]

Every time we accidentally call any number with our caller I.D. showing they the other party get our FreePhoneLine #s & can call us back & harass us to no end. WE Need to be able to Block individual #s or at least block our FreePhoneLine #s from showing up on other caller I.D. phone lines!

We Also need (Anonymous/Private/Unknown) 'Call Rejection' so that Nobody can Dial *67 & leave us harassing Phone Calls on our FreePhoneLine #s & get Away with it.

[eFrances]

I suggest, check and test the 911 emergency for efficiency. I think, there are no such things that don’t allow you to confirm any circumstances from 911. This could be possible.

[FONGO_kris]

eFrances, please see my answer to your other post here: http://forum.freephoneline.ca/viewtopic ... 482#p11482

If you have legitimate questions or concerns about our 911 practices you may email or pm me privately, otherwise please keep your thread spamming to a minimum as usually one thread per topic is enough, posting in many will not get your concerns looked at on a more urgent basis. The limitations of our and all VOIP providers 911 services are readily accessible here:

http://www.freephoneline.ca/911

Again, if there are any questions or concerns please contact me via email or pm directly; yes, it is true that if you call via a Bell Canada POTS line and hangup right away the 911 dispatcher will have your address, however this technology has been in the works for over 35 years. SIP / VOIP however, has only been a major competing market for under 15. Until it is made a standard that all PSAPs must accept both POTS and VOIP / SIP calls and have the information readily accessible to them the moment the call comes into their phone, we have to continually educate people on the limitations and such of VOIP 911 service.

Any posts related to 911 will be subsequently deleted unless placed in the correct section of the forum being here: http://forum.freephoneline.ca/viewtopic ... 07&start=0

[curriegrad2004]

My solution to the uncertain nature of 911 with VoIP is to keep any old cell phone handy.

Emergency calls work on those things regardless if it's activated or not, at least that's how it works for GSM phones. Personally I have my softswitch to capture all outgoing Emergency calls directing callers to 'use their cellular phones' instead of using the voice network at home. Yes, this may be a stupid idea in the short term, but really, I just did that to avoid all of the red tape behind 911 over VoIP.

[Sergo]

I was wondering if use SIP config setting for PAP2 or pbxes.org can I set my caller ID?
Voip.ms allows to do this and I can't decide between FPL and them, since I need it for my cellphone plan
when all calls should come from the same number.

[Ice]

Long story short, the answer is NO.

There have been problems in the past with inappropriate uses so the following is currently available:
- CallerID Number - can not be modified nor hidden, it always shows your registered number
- CallerID Name (CNAM) - can be set to your name how you choose it.

The blocking or hiding of your caller ID number is not available. There have been talks about getting it to work again but allowing/forcing the number to show for emergency calls but is not (yet) available.

If anybody who wants this feature back, I suggest voicing your opinion. Though your opinion will not dictate what the "power that be" actually end up doing, they will take it under consideration if it's popular.

[Sergo]

I was curious if just forward my FPL number using FPL Follow Me feature, what number would be passed as CID?
Original caller or my own FPL number?
(Right now for non-paid account it shows original caller's CID, which is not good for unlimited to one # cell phone plan)

[FONGO_kris]

Paid and free accounts alike will have similar if not the same feature functionality. For followme, the original CID will be passed.

[Ice]

Currently, Freephoneline forces CID to be sent on ALL calls because this info must be sent to the 911 Dispatcher if you ever call 911.

It is possible for Freephoneline to allow CID blocking, only forcing it on emergency/911 calls, but they have not done this (yet). Several users have suggested this already, but if an official thread isn't in the "Suggestion Box" perhaps the admin(s) will allow one as an avenue for us users to show our support for it. This topic didn't seem to get much support previously because people were talking about spoofing their CID, using it for improper/prank calling, and would/could block CID info from being sent to 911... for other privacy/legitimate reasons, I think it's a valid suggestion.

[FreePhoneUser]

my caller ID is blocked on every call made from my SIP but not from my softphone.

[callopsitte_himself]

The forum is also meant to read. Your problem has been resolved long ago here. Please before posting read. You should surely find a solution to your problem, if not only then should you post.

Solution to your problem is on first page of this topic.

[FreePhoneUser]

The forum is also meant to read. Your problem has been resolved long ago here. Please before posting read. You should surely find a solution to your problem, if not only then should you post.

Solution to your problem is on first page of this topic.

First, check your attitude. Second, I'm not complaining, I'm refuting what Ice has said directly above my post.

[sukasem]

+1 on PER CALL caller ID blocking (*67)
Please, please, pleaseeee