Holmdel, NJ, February 17, 2006 ? Vonage America, a subsidiary of Vonage Holdings Corp., a leading provider of broadband phone service, today announced that almost all of its customers have basic 911 service and a majority of them have Enhanced 911 - a feature that automatically associates a physical address with the calling party's telephone number. In just 90 days, Vonage has equipped an additional 1,061 locally run calling centers, in over 360 new counties, with E911 capabilities, which brings the total number of calling centers within the 911 service area to over 3180.
In June, the FCC gave Vonage, and all Internet-based phone service companies, 120 days to create an E911 system from scratch, and provide all of its customers, wherever they are in the U.S., with E911 service. With the help of the FCC's aggressive time line, Vonage worked closely with local 911 centers, also known as Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), across the country to turn on E911 for as many customers as quickly as it could. Currently, Vonage continues to test and turn up new PSAPs which are VoIP-ready every day and will continue to do so until Vonage customers have access to E911.
?We have equipped the majority of our customers with E911 service in record-breaking time,? said Jeffrey A. Citron, Vonage's Chairman and Chief Strategist. ?In just the past month, we have turned on E911 in over 610 additional PSAPs and 152 new counties. While it took the wireless industry 10 years to turn on E911 service in one-half of the nation's PSAPs, we did it in less than a year. Our goal is to get every Vonage customer help when they need it, and we will continue working with the FCC, regulators, Congress and public safety until there is equal access to E911 for Vonage customers.?
In less than a year, Vonage turned on E911 service for over 57 percent of its customers in the following counties ? bringing the total number of calling centers with emergency 911 service to over 3460. For areas outside the listed E911 coverage areas below, Vonage offers basic 911.
* In the event Vonage is unable to connect to the 911 system or for customers who are using mobile devices such as wifi phones or softclients, vonage offers a national emergency call center which enables customers to get local help when they need it.