Phone outage

[wifi]

As you might know, telephone landlines and many cell phones homed out of the Laconia central office are unable to call outside the local area. (this includes all telephone landlines from Laconia north to the Canada line) Many data circuits (fortunately, not my wifi system), DSL lines, etc are also affected. Laconia is the hub office for everything in the north country (excluding, I believe, Wolfeboro, which is is hubbed out of Dover. Union Telco also appears hubbed from the seacoast, which is not affected) One needs to seriously consider Verizon selling out the northeast because they don't make lots of money here... /on FLL


THE BIGGIE IS 9-1-1 IS DOWN IN THE NORTH COUNTRY AS WELL.


As I have said for years and years, putting all our eggs into the single 911 basket is a mistake. One technical problem, such as this, shows how vulnerable we are to a single problem. Nobody listens, they think calling 911 is the greatest thing, until they aren't there any more. Channel 9 is saying to drive to the local fire station if you have a problem. I wonder if you have a heart attack, whether your heart will understand while you drive to the local fire station.... LOL

Not only this, but they have DELETED, in the telephone directory, all the local phone numbers to call for an emergency, telling you to call 911 instead... what a bonehead decision. People in the boondocks (like me) are totally screwed in an acute emergency. (or a dead battery in my car)


ANYWAY.... the purpose of this post is to give you (that have data service and can read this) a point of reference of a local number to call for an emergency. These numbers have been and will always be. All the local police and fire stations are tied together by radio and manned (even the volunteer ones at this point), so if you can get to one of them by phone, they can relay to the right location via radio.



************************************

HERE ARE LOCAL CONTACT NUMBERS (numbers that are local to the north country AND WORKING):


FIRE AND MEDICAL EMERGENCY: 524-1545
Belknap County Sheriff: 524-3830

Carroll County Sheriff: 539-2284

State Police, Troop E in Tamworth: 323-3333

**********************************************


As usual, TRY 911 FIRST, then the above numbers. If you get a recording to hold on or call 911 first, just stay put and wait for a dispatcher.


How can people trust in a single point (911) service is beyond me.... Would you put your loved one into the hands of one person without checking options???? I think not. This is really absurd.


Have a safe and pleasant Valentines Day.

[GWC...]

Thanks for the explanation...

Wonder how long before someone starts a thread regarding this situation; rather than reading this thread?

Time will tell... :D :laugh: :laugh:

[Sunrise Point]

I rememeber from years ago that all of the police departments (in Mass anyways) could be reached by calling the local exchange (back when there was only one per town) and addiing 1212. Now that 911 has become the norm, this is no longer the case and you actually have to look up the phone number for the local police in the phone book.

Thank you for posting the numbers. I am printing them up as I type this and they will be taped to my refrigerator in NH by tomorrow night.

What has happened that the local and cell lines out of Laconia are no longer working as they should?

[Skipper of the Sea Que]

We often pay little attention to communications until we don't have what we are used to having. Today it can make you feel very isolated. That's one of the many reasons I like my Ham Radios.

If the outage is expected to be a long one then I would guess that Ham Radio operators are already being assigned to various key communications points to help relay messages into and out of the Laconia Relay point area (if that is what is down). They may also have Hams at local police stations, hospitals, fire stations and such places to aid with communications.

I would also expect that a major trunk, relay point or hub would have a back up path to avoid just such a situation. Hope it gets fixed quickly.

[Lakegeezer]

If the internet stays up, its a good alternate channel of communication. With Vonage, you can even dial 911. Email and instant message are good ways to communicate. Are the public services considering that?

[CanisLupusArctos]

A couple years ago when I had occasion to dial 911 for fire/rescue services in the lakes region, the 911 operator took my information and then patched the call into Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid (524-1545, which WiFi listed above.) The LRMFA dispatcher then asked me for the same info and was the one who actually dispatched the crews.

More recently I decided to call direct, instead of going through 911. When I saw a boat crash on rocks last summer and the occupants were shouting for help, I called Marine Patrol direct. I gave my info to one dispatcher, one time only. A few minutes later, there was Marine Patrol, land cops, fire department, and Stewart's Ambulance, all converging on the scene.

I think 911 is just easier to remember, but if you can memorize the direct line to the service(s) you may need, that would be faster. If you don't have quick access to any other number, DON'T waste time looking or trying to remember... just dial 911 and get the ball rolling.

The great thing about 911 dispatchers is that they are usually trained to talk you through basic medical care while you wait for the crews to arrive. Your local PD/FD may not have that kind of training, which means you'd be relying 100% on them to show up quickly. 911 dispatchers have been known to talk callers through the process of baby delivery, burn treatment, bleeding control, and even CPR. If you are already trained in what to do, or if you're just reporting something without being able to take any action, it's definitely faster to call the local agency's dispatcher direct... as long as you know their phones are manned 24/7, and as long as you have the number handy or memorized.

[Blue Thunder]

The problem has been fixed but the question raised is a good one. Imagine, one tree, laden with ice falls and takes out phone service in 25 communities. That's scary...

http://www.wmur.com/news/15305274/detail.html

BT

[gtxrider]

Thats high tech you cram a lot of bandwidth on a fiber and when it is down you also lose a lot of circuits. When I got to work I took a look and there was a Verizon Fiber outage. Looks like it affected Melvin Village, Laconia and small offices homed on the Alton tandem office.....Not much you can do when trees fall on hanging fiber. You can bury the fiber but back hoes seem to find it. Don't believe all you hear advertized about Voice Over IP (VoIP). It has its own problems.


As for the outage I bet Verizon has to file an FCC report on the outage since it affected 911.

[Lakegeezer]

Don't believe all you hear advertized about Voice Over IP (VoIP). It has its own problems.VOIP has its problems, but most can be overcome. If the internet goes down, you lose VOIP, but the quality, features and price make it quite good. At first, I had a problem with voice quality when uploading files from my PC, but a $50 bandwidth optimizer upstream of the modem fixed that. I have everything protected with a battery backup UPS, so don't lose the internet or VOIP during power glitches. Under $30 gets me the line, a ton of features including voicemail, unlimited calling in the US, France, Spain, UK and Italy, and 1 cent per minute for lots of other places, even China. My cell phone is backup incase VOIP fails, but so far it hasn't. I got tired of Verizon's lack of flexibility in their policies, acting as if they were a monopoly. They aren't any more.