At&t Uverse and Calling 911? - Milwaukee,WI

Updated on October 26, 2014
M.B. asks from Milwaukee, WI
7 answers

Hi helpful mamas, how are you? I have an itty bitty question... today a pair of salespeople came to the door and told me about AT&T Uverse and we compared what I'm paying for my landline and also my Time Warner cable and internet, and I found I can save a lot of money by switching, so I agreed to an installation in a week. I was wondering of any of you use AT&T Uverse and digital phone. I told them I thought I had to have a landline because if we have to call 911 it takes longer to respond if it's not a landline. At least that's what I've thought for years, but they assured me that 911 will still respond quickly to a digital phone call as well. Do any of y'all have any experience with this? Many thanks for any advice you have for me. *Peace*

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T.R.

answers from Milwaukee on

As far as I know (& can find by a quick search on AT&T site), the digital phone is still a "land line", but it runs through their cable.

This is different than a cell phone, where you can call from your phone no matter where you are located - I believe you need to be in your house to use the AT&T Uverse Digital Phone.

The difficulty with calling 911 from a cell phone is that the cell towers triangulate (cross signals to "map" your location) & it is an estimation at best. I had to call from my apartment last month, & the 911 operator couldn't tell if I was in one city or another. I told her the complete address & she was then able to verify.

If you call from a phone connected to your home, whether it is through a cable or the "phone line", it should pull up your exact address in the event that you need to call 911. T.

3 moms found this helpful
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J.K.

answers from Wausau on

Uverse phone will not work without power, but there is short-term battery backup in case of power outage. The backup will only work with corded phones; cordless phones won't work because the backup will not power the bases.

If you run through that battery, your phone stops working entirely.

AT&T posts this disclaimer "Emergency calls to 911 can't be made without power. Make sure you have an alternate way to get help if needed."

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB408090&...

1 mom found this helpful
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J.G.

answers from Chicago on

We've had vonage for over 12 years. The 911 problem is that if you lose power, you have no phone. The cell cannot give your location, so you can't just call 911 and transmit the address.

The savings is well worth the risk of not having power. We've had vonage for 13 years. Free international calls. Emails that transcribe voice messages. It's great, and cheap.

1 mom found this helpful

J.S.

answers from St. Louis on

You are calling 911, you tell them where you are, they respond. No difference. The only possible delay is if you don't give your location and they can't find it like when you call from a cell phone.

I just want to add, since people are talking about power outage, AT&T will not install VOIP without a battery backup. I had VOIP for a few months but it wasn't compatible with our alarm so we went back to a landline.

1 mom found this helpful

T.F.

answers from Dallas on

We have a TWC bundle and ATTuverse stops by at least once every 2 weeks with a sales pitch.

At 1 point I said yes but I cancelled during installation because the sales guy said nothing would change with my system but the installer was planning to drill holes in my outside brick and in garage.

I told ATT to go away because they were completely changing my setup. I don't regret my decision.

We have 1 digital phone which is only used for fax. No need as yet to call 911 but if we do, you just give you'd address to the agent.

Good luck

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P.K.

answers from New York on

I can't answer the 911 question. However I switched to Verizon for phone, internet, cell phones. Biggest mistake of my life. Sounded good but in the end it costs more. Phone service is terrible. I will be canceling next month and pay penalty. I hope you have better luck.

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G.D.

answers from Detroit on

We have cable phone, tv, and Internet. Haven't had to call 911 from it, but we did lose power and still had phone. Our cable company happened to be working when the power went out. When he left I noticed he left a generator at the pole. Not sure if that was why the phone still worked. An hour or so later the other local cable company had a generator at another pole. And 80% of my neighbors ha generators going in the sub. We were one of te few in the dark, but at least we could still call out, right?

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