Emergency Call Boxes in an Era of a Mobile Age

For many organizations, the move to VOIP has left unanswered questions regarding reliability/redundancy, which was present with POTS, but remains a requirement. The monetary decision could lead to a potential loss of life and premise liability exposure, which will most likely be tested through “murphy’s law” in the not too near future. That test may play out something like this.

A person with malicious intent stalks an individual as they walk to their car. The individual realizes that someone is following them, and grabs their mobile phone, which is dead and will not turn on. The individual sees a call box in the distance, marked by a dim blue light. The call box obscures the blue light and its encasement through years of weather and ultraviolet damage. In the darkness, the individual’s heart is racing, and they run to the beacon with the sound of the footfalls behind them becoming louder. Reaching the call box, they frantically press the large red button marked emergency. The device immediately activates with a loud dial tone that reverberates and echoes into the darkness. The dial tone follows even louder tones as the device dials the pre-programmed digits to open a communication path to help, slowing the approaching footfalls. Recognizing that a response is immediate, a sense of relief washes over the individual. Under the shadow cast by the steady faint blue light, the last digit creates an unfamiliar, terrifying warble – a busy signal.

Want to read more, check out the full article here: Security Industry Association