Some county telephone customers see 911 delays

MERRIMAC - Calls to 911 from Merrimac Communications customersin Columbia County are routed to out-of-state call centers insteadof the local dispatch center, resulting in a loss of crucialinformation being transmitted and often longer response times,according to the Columbia County 911 supervisor.

Bart Olsen, owner of Merrimac Communications, said 911 calls fromhis customers in Columbia County are routed to the national callcenter, but he said the 911 calls from his Sauk and Dane Countyusers, who are the majority of his customer base, go directly totheir local dispatch centers.

Olsen said Sauk and Dane County 911 calls are handled by AT&T,but Columbia County's calls are handled by Frontier, formerlyVerizon. Olsen said his company owns phones lines that connect hiscustomers directly to their dispatch centers in Sauk and Danecounties, but not in Columbia.

Olsen said that after conversations with his national provider, 911Enable, the provider will build new phone lines that will allow 911calls from the company's 90 Columbia County telephone customers tobe routed directly to the local dispatch center.

Morrical said Columbia County dispatch began noticing problems withthe calls last month. Merrimac Communication uses a technologycalled voice over Internet protocol that sends a customer's callover an Internet connection to a switchboard that then sends thecall over traditional landlines.

Morrical said about 2 percent of Columbia County's 1,500 monthly911 calls are VOIP. She said those calls aren't a problem when theprovider is large enough to ensure 911 calls are being directed tothe county's dispatch center.