Addison County Communications Union District dba Maple Broadband (“Maple Broadband,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) supports fiber and internet-based (“VOIP”) Voice Service options. Unlike traditional telephone services, your Voice Services provided as VOIP or over our fiber network may not operate as expected – including calls to 911 – in the event of a power outage or if you move your handset to a different address.
We ask that you (“you,” “your,” or “Customer”) review the critical information about our Voice Services so that you and the users of your service may understand the unique operating requirements of your service.
If you have any questions, please call us at 802-49-MAPLE (62753).
All Services we provide are subject to our Terms of Service found at https://www.maplebroadband.net/terms-of-service/
Backup Power Information for Voice Service Provided over Fiber
If your home phone service is provided with our state-of-the-art fiber optic network, it requires electric power to operate. To avoid a disruption of home voice service during a power outage – and to maintain the ability to connect to 911/e911 emergency services – we at recommend you purchase backup battery power.
Where to Obtain Your Backup Battery
Maple Broadband would like to ensure that our customers are offered reliable backup batteries that allow you to continue to use your home voice services during a power outage. We sell an 8-hour and 24-hour backup battery to power your Maple Broadband demarcation equipment in the event of a power outage. All the backup batteries we sell include a manufacturer’s warranty.
What Your Backup Battery Can – and Can’t – Do for You
The 8-hour backup battery sold by Maple Broadband is expected to last at up to 8 hours on standby power which equates to approximately 4-5 hours of talk time. Our 24-hour battery is expected to provide 24 hours of standby power and approximately 18-hours of talk time. The backup battery does not provide power to any services other than voice. Home security systems, medical monitoring devices, routers and other equipment will not run on a home phone backup battery. The backup battery does not power your phone handsets that may separately require power. You must have a phone capable of being plugged into a jack and running off the backup battery should your home power fail.
Proper Care and Use of Your Battery
The ability of the backup battery to power your phone service can be affected by many factors including the age of your battery, improper home wire groundings and unprotected power surges, manufacturer defect, improper storage conditions, or failure to keep the power pack plugged in. Environmental factors such as temperature can shorten your battery’s useful life. We recommend that you store your battery above 41°F and below 104°F. Our batteries are rechargeable and provide both an audible alarm and LED lights to indicate bad battery, low battery, and utility line power failure. Batteries that continue to indicate a malfunctioning alarm despite the battery being plugged into a working power outlet may indicate that the battery has failed and needs to be replaced. Testing of your battery may be conducted by unplugging the unit to confirm that it is functioning as intended.
Emergency 911 Services on VOIP
Maple Broadband offers Voice Services that utilize your broadband connection to the internet to provide telephone line or Hosted PBX services. These services are commonly referred to as VOIP.
Because VOIP services rely on a working broadband connection and can often be moved to different locations, in some instances the service may have limitations particularly in accessing 911/E911 emergency services.
In order for your 911/E911 calls to be properly directed to emergency services, we must have your correct premises address. If you move your VOIP to a different address 911/E911 calls may be directed to the wrong emergency authority, may transmit the wrong address, and/or VOIP (including 911/E911) may fail altogether. Before moving your VOIP service to a new address, you must call us at 802-49-MAPLE (62753) so that we may determine if we can continue to provide 911/E911 service to you at your new location. Even if we are able to support 911/E911 calling from your new address, there may be a delay of several days before your address change will be processed allowing your 911/E911 calls to be correctly identified.
VOIP uses the electrical power in your home. If there is an electrical power outage, 911/E911 calling will be interrupted if your service is not equipped with a functioning battery backup or if your battery backup fails or is exhausted after several hours. Furthermore, calls, including calls to 911/E911, may not be completed if there is a problem with network facilities, including network congestion, network equipment and/or power failure, or other technical problem.
Your VOIP product requires a broadband connection to operate. Should any of your services be suspended or terminated for any reason, your ability to use your VOIP line, including to contact 911/E911, will be disabled.
VOIP Services are not set up to function with non-voice services such as home security systems, medical monitoring equipment, TTY equipment, or entertainment or satellite television systems.