I want to ask about e911 for use in this situation, but since I am a long-time user of this forum, I'd just like to request that I NOT be lectured by anyone who has a problem with what I propose to do. I know there are some Google Voice haters in the crowd, and that a few of you think that a PSTN line is the only way to get reliable 911, and so on. Believe me, I have seen all the arguments for and against VoIP-based e911, and don't want to hear 'em again. I am only seeking opinions on what is the best and lowest cost option for a VoIP-based e911 service that will work with Asterisk. If you want to moralize about 911, I'd request you save it for another thread.
So, the deal is that we are setting up a family member with a Google Voice account that goes through an Asterisk switch. Of course we all know that Google Voice does not offer e911, so what I would like to attempt to find is a way to give them reliable e911 service at a low monthly or annual charge. This must be a service that can be used as a trunk in Asterisk (or maybe FreeSWITCH, if I ever get around to replacing my current setup with FusionPBX/FreeSWITCH). I do NOT need the ability to make outgoing calls other than 911, and I do NOT need any incoming call capability (however, if the company happens to offer free incoming calls on a ported number for no additional monthly charge, we could port their current number, but it's not really necessary and above all we don't want to pay extra for that, or ANY per-minute charges).
The last time I asked about this, in a somewhat different situation, I was told about these companies (in order of cost from lowest to highest). These are from my notes at the time:
Bulk911: 72 cents a month, no idea how they do things but a couple people recommended them, however IIRC someone thought they used an inferior method of completing 911 calls. The thing I liked, besides it being the least expensive, was that there was no chance of incurring any surprise fees as far as I could tell, and it seemed to be easy to set up.
Future9: $10 setup, then $1/mo. You have to IM them here in this forum to get it set up. They do pre-send your address to the 911 center, which I guess is supposed to be a better method. What bothered me a little bit about this was you couldn't set it up through their web portal. Since the users of this service don't have an account on DSLReports, I'd wind up acting as a middleman of sorts, and I'd really prefer they be able to make the purchase directly.
Callcentric: No setup fee, but $1.50 a month. They also pre-send your address to the 911 center, and I was told that if you route incoming Google Voice calls through them they offer caller ID name, though it wasn't clear to me if there was an extra fee for that. Seemed a little complicated to set up. At least I'd be doing the setup but I wish you could just go there and directly buy e911 service without having to navigate through a bunch of other options. Also, I don't like the idea of using a service that requires that a number be called every x number of days to keep the account active (again, incoming call capability isn't really needed), and I know that was part of the deal for some Callcentric services.
I was also told about Anveo, which supposedly charges 80 cents per month, but someone pointed out that on their Terms of Use page, they say that they will charge $5 per E911 call if you make more than two E911 calls per month. That is a deal-killer; once I hear that they can hit you with surprise extra charges there isn't a chance I will recommend them to anyone. Plus I was also told they don't use the better connection method.
So now my question is, are there any other options I should know about, or have any of the above changed in the last couple of years? In this case, reliability will be given slightly more weight than cost (no, they will not get a PSTN line, so don't even), but after that the main thing we want to avoid is the chance of getting hit with any sneaky extra charges or fees above the annual rate for the service. The annual price should be the annual price, period (and I think they would prefer to pay once a year, though monthly isn't out of the question). As of today, what services do you guys like?
↧