For about a year now, we have been using a VoIP phone line provided by Broadvoice and as a whole have been happy with our service. It was a brilliant move for us while in Prague. We signed up for the Global Plus plan that gave us unlimited calls to land line for over 30 countries. Now that we are back in the US of A, we chose to down grade to regular Global coverage, which only includes about 15 countries.

But, the biggest downside to using VoIP as a primary phone has been its lack of emergency calling or 9-1-1. Due to VoIP’s very nature, the number is assigned to and IP, not an physical address. I received notification from Broadvoice a few days ago, that they have added 9-1-1 support. It was easy. I logged in to my account settings page, and assigned a physical address to our account. Now, if the need for 9-1-1 should arise, the call will get routed to the nearest emergency dispatch. For us, that would be either Sunnyvale or Mountain View.

No one ever intends to use 9-1-1, but I am glad that it is there like a warm blanket. :)

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