Re: Uniformity of 911 availability?

On 24 Apr 2006 13:42:12 -0700, bigtvdaddy@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

There are still many exchanges in the United States which use the
electromagnetic pulse system. Touch Tone service may be available, but
the tones are translated to pulses for the exchange equipment.
Typically, these exchanges are small, independent local companies, or
they were small and independent before being bought, merged or absorbed
by a larger regional/national company. The old pulse equipment still

The last step-by-step switches in the US (which were in Illinois,
Indiana, and Ohio, of all places, not very rural states like Wyoming
and Alaska as you might expect!) were replaced in the late '90s, and
Canada followed a couple of years later. ALL public network phone
switches in the US are digital (99% of them) or at the very least
electronic analog (the 1AESS switches still found in some Bell areas)
and have no "tone penalty".

Besides, even mechanical switches can do 911 just fine, since in the
vast majority of areas, 911 calls are trunked to a special switch
(always digital) known as a selective router to route the call to the
appropriate public safety agencies.

-SC
--
Stanley Cline // Telco Boi // sc1 at roamer1 dot org // www.roamer1.org

"it seems like all you ever buy is Abercrombie and cell phones" --a friend
.