911 service at pool

Our county requires that we have an active 911 phone at our swimming pool. We have complied with this requirement ever since the HOA was opened 23 years ago. In 2020 I installed a 911 only pool phone. You open the call box, pick up the phone and you are connected to the local 911 operator within a few seconds. Thie phone replaced an older phone that required dialing the number. In reviewing the system recently I realized that we pay nearly $1800.00 a year for having the 911 phnoe active at the pool. Except for the annual inspection by the County Health Dept, the phone has neve been used. I am trying to figure out a cheaper way to have the 911 service at the pool, whih is only open 5 months out of the year. Does anyone have a suggestion?
dennisg7

Could you setup a little box with a cell phone that has no service, and connect it to a charger? Then if someone needs the phone, they can grab it and use it to call 911. You might put it on a teather so it doesn't walk off. If placed inside a box marked "emergency 911 phone" or whatnot, especially if a box that looks like it comes from the 1980's, probably no one would mess with it.

I think the requirement to have a phone at the pool is probably an outdated requirement (while still in force) as virtually everyone brings their cell phone with them everywhere including the pool. You could always ask the people in charge of the rule to consider updating the rule.

I would talk to someone like Verizon or whomever you may have service with. They may have an option to fullfill your needs. Many people are going away from "land lines". It may be your HOA can do the same with newer technology. What about having one of those "I have fallen" devices? Ask the fire marshall if they have suggestions. You may be surprised there may be options did not know was available before.

Here is thought and this is from 911.gov)

"All wireless phones, even those that are not subscribed to or supported by a specific carrier, can call 911. However, calls to 911 on phones without active service do not deliver the caller’s location to the 911 call center, and the call center cannot call these phones back to find out the caller’s location or the nature of the emergency. If disconnected, the 911 center has no way to call back the caller."

So you could have a simple cell phone that is not activated located somewhere (maybe in one of those 'break glass in case of emergency kind of a thing') and as long as it is kept charged, you would be able to dial 911. Also have the street address clearly posted next to the box, since the location info would not be provided

Congratulations on the phone only being used for tests.
That is not a bad thing to have happen.

The state law requires that we have a hard wireded landline. Currently we added the phone service to a Comcast account, that's the $1800 annual fee. I have been trying for 2+ days to get the only ardwired landline company to give me aprice to reinstall a wired landline. I've been told by 2 different AT&T stores near me that they don;t handle landlines!! That's impossible. I'm hoping I can get a supervisior to call me. I see ATT boxes all over our HOA. I'll spot an ATT repairman on occasion but thus far I've not been able to get any custoer service people to call me back!
We only need a dial tone. The phone only calls 911. I'd rather not be droping $1800 a year on a dial tone. In the past 2 years I'm not aware that the 911 phone has ever been used, but we have to have it to open the pool.
dennisg7