Nassau County Legislator Lisanne Altmann (D-Great Neck), vice chair of the Public Safety Committee, is alerting consumers that some telephone service offered by internet providers may not include enhanced 911 services, a feature that provides the caller's address or phone number.

These providers, called VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, offer telephone service over high-speed Internet access, along with low monthly prices, but this service comes with some drawbacks. Often 911 through these services is not fail-safe, generating increasing concern among emergency personnel, consumer advocates and federal, state and local officials. While these services seem functionally the same, many VoIP callers find they cannot reach local emergency operators.

An incident in February propelled the 911 issue to national attention when burglars fired shots at Houston homeowners as their daughter tried frantically and unsuccessfully to call 911 through Vonage and one Florida mother’s three-month old child died as a result of delays when she couldn’t get through to 911 emergency services.

“People have a reasonable expectation that when they dial 911 from their phone that they will be connected to an emergency operator and that they will be located,” said Legislator Altmann. “But unfortunately, that is not always the case.”

The snag arises when certain Net phone operators or “nomadic” services assign phone numbers independent of where a customer actually lives. This is a major draw for customers, who can live in one city, but have a telephone number from another area.

A recent ruling last week by the FCC gave Net phone carriers a late September deadline to provide the same 911 service as landlines and cell phones and Sen. Hillary Rodham-Clinton (D-N.Y.) and others have introduced a bill mandating VoIP providers offer 911. Legislator Altmann and her majority colleagues have also sent a letter to FCC and federal lawmakers voicing their support of legislation that would mandate the 911 service.

“While I applaud the recent FCC ruling, we also want to reach out to consumers here in Nassau County to educate them regarding this critical public safety issue,” said Legislator Altmann.

Most of the popular providers in the New York area, like Cablevision's Optimum Voice and Time Warner Digital Phone, include enhanced 911 services, according to Scannell. Vonage, AT&T CallVantage and Verizon's Voicewing, lack enhanced 911.

According to Inspector Edmund Horace of the Nassau County Police Department’s Communication Bureau, in Nassau County, emergency calls via VoIP are often directed to an administrative line, but these calls could be ringing for some time before they're actually answered.

“If they required a callback, we wouldn't be able to locate them because we don't get any ID like we do on 911,” he said.

“Before a tragedy occurs, these VoIP providers that don’t provide 911 should disclose that these services are nonexistent or limited. No one should be put at risk,” Altmann said.