sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Dial 9 and hangup on 5ESS CO calls 911

Here's a strange condition, and this is the 2nd time its happened.

I go off hook on a single line phone on a residential Verizon CO line to check for static. To clear the dial tone so I can listen, I hit 9 on the TT pad. I listen to the line and it sounds ok, so I hang up.

30 seconds later I get a return call from the 911 operator regarding a 911 hangup call.

So, my theory is, dialing 9 is a bad idea because the hangup that follows (a one pulse), plus the CO switch dropping the line (a one pulse), is sending 2 one pulses to the switch thus completing the call to 911.

The local phone company is Verizon, and according to telcodata.us...

Switch Type: WECO 5ESS Remote (5A RSM)

I called repair service and of course they had never heard of this happening.

Any ideas?

Thanks, -Stryder

Why don't you punch 1 and not 9 . That should take care of the 9 dilemma . Just a thought IMHO .

----- or the first digit of the prefix?

KLD

No doubt on this one; there is an intermittent open (high resistance fault) on the line causing the static. Dialing a "9" and then waiting means that a few seconds of static will result in two "pulses of ONE". Creating a "one" only requires a momentary open on the line.

Tell Verizon that you want to arrange for a vendor meeting at the site. You will have to commit to a specific time of day, and they will be late if they show up at all, but do your part. Just make sure you have all of your ducks in a row because if you are wrong, they will shoot you in the head right there on the spot in front of the customer.

Or just mutilated digits that default to 911.

They probably program the switch that way as a safety feature, so if someone's being attacked and tries to dial but the attacker hangs up before they dial 911 it still goes through.

If there is static on the line, I agree with Ed - the "popping" is completing the pulses.

Bill

Somewhat related..... Why does almost every company use 9 for outside access?? We get problems every once in awhile where someone dials 9 then 1 for long distance. only they "fat finger" the 1 and end up calling 911. Of course they never stay on the line. Just curious....

At DePauw University (and Putnam County Hospital..both have Fujitsu 9600..so probably installed by the same company), we use 7 instead of 9. Kind of annoying though, since any key system behind the PBX uses 9...meaning you dial 9-7 for an outside line.

9 has been used as outside line access code by PBX long before 911 emergency system existed.