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Personally, I do not have a TDD, but I am not too concerned because I live in a tightly knit apartment community and know that my neighbors would call 911 if I ran around screaming (I am a big fella…they would call the cops out of fear anyway :-)). If I lived in a place where I did not have neighbors 2-3 feet away…I would simply call up the local telephone company and activate my phone line, but not subscribe to their service. Local companies are supposed to keep all lines “live” for just 911 calls…and if an emergency occured I would just dial 911 and leave the phone off the hook…response would come in about 10 minutes..I know this because I had a good friend with a phone number ending in 9110….you can guess what happened when I mis-dialed one time…

http://www.viable.net/vrs/e911/

I wonder if Viable has the ability, like Sorenson (via a third party), to track IP numbers to your address. Come to think of it, I wonder if Sorenson’s contractor (presumably with its more detailed database / abilities) can actually match IP addresses to addresses or only to the general area. Hmm.

From your link:

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“However, all 9-1-1 calls made through ViableVRS will receive priority treatment and receive the next available video interpreter (VI). As soon as the VI appears on screen, the ViableVRS caller will be asked for name, street address, and a brief description of the emergency. Afterwards, the VI will contact our special emergency center, get the local phone number for emergency response, connect to that number, and relay the conversation.”

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With a TDD, you can dial 911 and pass out and someone will come and knock down the door. With Viable you need to call and give all info before they even know where you are. Not good enough in real emergencies (i.e. you are having a heart attack and cannot talk on the phone or someone broke into your house and you need to dial 911 then hide or get a baseball bat).