California bill tells telephone, cable companies to take rural 911 seriously

6 March 2017 by Steve Blum
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Press 1 to pay your bill. If you’re having a heart attack, stay on the line and a representative will be with you shortly.

When broadband or phone service goes down in rural California, the last people to know are often the dispatchers at emergency 911 centers. When they do figure it out, there’s not much they can do about it except hope for the best. Such notification requirements that exist have thresholds that are set with urban areas in mind – hundreds of thousands of households, for example – and can leave rural communities in a telecoms black hole for hours or days on end.… More