VoIP: 711 Relay

Because I have no problems with my sending/receiving text with TTY via VoIP (I signed up with Vonage weeks ago), do you think FCC should require VoIP providers to provide support for dialing 711? In my experience with my TTY, I get a steady, blinky LED light, so since I bought my cheapy cordless phone, I dialed 711 and told me that International calling is currently blocked (I set this up myself in my Vonage account to minimize International charges since I don't make International calls). Yet I do found it strange that 711 is International? To me it doesn't sound like it but I just found out that Vonage doesn't have a system setup for calling a local relay service.

Well I don't really know if VoIP providers will implement 711 dialing but could FCC require VoIP providers provide a support for 711 dialing? Vonage provided E911 support, which I had to fill out my home address and that's not a problem so I'm thinking "why not 711?"

By the way, if some of you would ask me why not IP Relay, well, in my computer, my AIM may not always be connected to the Internet, plus when my mom calls me through IP Relay with my IP Relay number, she may not be able to reach me (well sometimes she did reach me) and makes me think I'd got to try to make sure that Ramble IM are always logged in to the network and can make me feel a bit frustrated. But, my topic is about VoIP and 711, so IP Relay can be discussed in a different thread.

If anybody wanted to know how I got my TTY working with VoIP, visit the thread about getting your TTY to work with VoIP.

GraysonPeddie said:

Because I have no problems with my sending/receiving text with TTY via VoIP (I signed up with Vonage weeks ago), do you think FCC should require VoIP providers to provide support for dialing 711? In my experience with my TTY, I get a steady, blinky LED light, so since I bought my cheapy cordless phone, I dialed 711 and told me that International calling is currently blocked (I set this up myself in my Vonage account to minimize International charges since I don't make International calls). Yet I do found it strange that 711 is International? To me it doesn't sound like it but I just found out that Vonage doesn't have a system setup for calling a local relay service.

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That's a good question... I never thought to dial 711 with my Packet8 phone. (Packet8 is a competetor of Vonage) When I make a relay call I use 2 line VCO calles using IP relay on my computer and the 3-way calling with Packet8. (it works great by the way and cost me nothing, a regular phone line would charge me to death every time I made a 3-way call)

i strongly suggest you contact Vonage and ask that they program 711 into the next firmware upgrade. It shouldn't be hard to do. When you dial 711 on a regular phone the call gets forwarded to the relay call center for the state you are in. If you dial 711 in Nebraska for example, you get Hamilton Relay. You could get the same relay by dialing their 1-800 number that they've had since the days before 711. All that Vonage needs to do is program the device to forward the call to that number when you dial 711.

When you dial 711 on a Vonage account the system gets confused because its only 3 digits and it starts with 7, so it tells you you can't make a international call.

I don't think this is a job for the FCC, I think we as customers should be able to tell the companies that this is what customers need and and they'll do it because they want our business.

If you want to give me your number I can try calling 711 and see if it works. (I don't know any one else with a tty that I can call today)

OK. I asked Vonage and I got this from e-mail:

We understand from your email that you need to know whether it is possible for Vonage to add support for dialing 711.

We currently do not offer a the requested feature. We are constantly enhancing the scope of our features, so please check the website if we start offering the requested feature.

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Then I started a thread to make a request:

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic16809.html

Hi. I have a TTY and I look at some features such as Vonage V-Forecast and they only output voice and no TTY tones. This also includes voicemail and call return which I'd use in case I miss a call.

In order for those to work, those Call Return, Voicemail, and Vonage V-Forecast must be able to output TTY messages, so it would be great if Vonage could make it work for those with TTY--maybe provide an option to switch between voice and TTY.

I've already mentioned 711 dialing support to Vonage when e-mailing but AFAIK Vonage doesn't offer feature request, but without support for dialing 711, it's okay. I just have to dial a 1-800 number to dial the relay service and dial the voice number I want to call.

I hope Vonage can implement the TTY support really soon but I can wait.

I setup a poll to find out if anyone of you are deaf/hard-of-hearing/hearing impaired/speech impaired or not, but I do know most of you aren't (not to make an assumption, of course) which means I'll probably expect to see a higher percentage for "no" answer, so that's no big deal to me.

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Well, aside from Vonage V-Forecast, which you can check the weather over the phone (even if your computer is off or if you don't have time to watch TV during the morning), what's important to me is 711 and (which I haven't mentioned) is Voicemail.

While I do know that my Q90-D has a built-in answering machine, I'd rather use Voicemail because I'd like to be able to see how many messages I have, who left the voicemail (Caller ID), what date the message have been left, etc. but the main focus is 711 dialing and I think Vonage ignored my request in my thread...

So what I do think is Vonage doesn't target those with hearing disabilities, but partially, since for those with little hearing loss (like me), there is amplified telephones, but even with amplified telephones, I may have some trouble recognizing words, even the words that I know in print or spoken in person (except for when listening to a storyteller reading a book, etc.). Plus, with some vowels, I do tend to stutter a bit and have some problems pronounciating the words correctly (like my name "Grayson," (which could slow my speech a bit and irritate me). So I use TTY except for when making a phone call with my mom since my mom doesn't like relay (which I use my cell phone).

And that's why it's important for VoIP providers to provide support and features that makes VoIP more useful to those with disabilities.