I live in a small rural hilltown (population less than 600, about 250 residences). Our town's phones are connected to a Verizon SLC/Remote Terminal (as described in http://phonefailure.com/) that has batteries good for about 4 hours. In the case of a power outage, Verizon drives a generator truck up to our town to provide power for the phone system. Although this usually works, as we saw in an ice storm in December 2008, sometimes the reason for the power outage also prevents a generator truck from getting through. It took us most of a day to get the trees cleared off the roads enough for our emergency vehicles to get through (it took me 45 minutes to make a 5 minute drive to the EOC at the height of the storm, including waiting for a highway bucket loader to clear a tree that fell just inches from my truck). During that entire day, the town had no dialtone or telephone service, including 911. Fortunately, we had no fires and miraculously no medical or trauma calls during this time.
In addition, E911 service for our town and the neighboring town usually is routed to a PSAP at the state police dispatch center about 15 miles away. In the event that connection goes down, 911 calls are routed to the alternate PSAP, which is a single phone line connected to that very same remote terminal and terminating at our Public Safety Complex (AKA Firehouse). Right now, that alternate PSAP line is connected to a simple analog telephone at our radio desk (at least we replaced the rotary dial phone it used to be). In the event that the network is partitioned, the state police will send a dispatcher to our town to staff the alternate PSAP (assuming they can get through, and assuming that the RT has power).
Of course, all the dispatcher will have at our alternate PSAP is an analog phone with no location or caller information and a radio. Which gets me finally to my questions: Does anyone have experience with any low-end systems for displaying E911 ANI or ALI information at an alternate PSAP? Has anyone succeeded in getting Verizon to install a backup generator for an SLC/Remote Terminal?
In addition, E911 service for our town and the neighboring town usually is routed to a PSAP at the state police dispatch center about 15 miles away. In the event that connection goes down, 911 calls are routed to the alternate PSAP, which is a single phone line connected to that very same remote terminal and terminating at our Public Safety Complex (AKA Firehouse). Right now, that alternate PSAP line is connected to a simple analog telephone at our radio desk (at least we replaced the rotary dial phone it used to be). In the event that the network is partitioned, the state police will send a dispatcher to our town to staff the alternate PSAP (assuming they can get through, and assuming that the RT has power).
Of course, all the dispatcher will have at our alternate PSAP is an analog phone with no location or caller information and a radio. Which gets me finally to my questions: Does anyone have experience with any low-end systems for displaying E911 ANI or ALI information at an alternate PSAP? Has anyone succeeded in getting Verizon to install a backup generator for an SLC/Remote Terminal?
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