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amungusPremium
join:2004-11-26
America Reviews:
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| I call bull Traveled out of town about a month ago.
Was on a highway between two towns and my friend was driving. A truck towing a trailer was swerving like crazy and then lost control, skidded across the road, and flipped over, trailer and all. Horrible thing to witness...
His girlfriend called 911 almost instantly. We were right behind the vehicle when this happened, so of course we pulled over, along with the other nearby cars.
Emergency personnel were there in less than 5 minutes as we were right between two towns that were close to each other. We were able to give a good description of where we were, as I'm sure the other callers did (I'm 99.99999% sure the other drivers called too...). I'd also be willing to bet that they verified our locations right away, even if the dispatchers understood where we were.
All phones sold after, I think it was '02, MUST include AGPS (assisted GPS) chips (»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS). These work in tandem w/the towers to locate you when calling 911, or can work without GPS at all and get your location very quickly (compared to the "old fashioned" way of needing to manually triangulate) and can happen in literally seconds. It can't be turned off, and it can even be remotely activated without your knowledge or consent, even if set to "911 only" on the phone... Privacy is already pretty much an illusion when it comes to these things...
We were roaming, and 911 worked. Not only did it work, the people who responded were there in a flash, and the people who were in the accident survived (AFIK - one did for sure, the other was injured, though how much I don't know... they were pulling her out though, and she was definitely not dead).
From the article:
"About 93% of the nation's 911 centers have technology that lets the dispatcher immediately see the caller's phone number and the location of the cell tower that picks up the call. But the dispatcher must request the caller's GPS coordinates from the wireless carrier that operates the tower. This process can take several seconds and may yield a location as far as 300 meters from the caller, not much help in a high-rise apartment." And that request that takes "seconds" wasn't done for the poor woman who couldn't be located?! If I were the family, I would sue the daylights out of that operator and their boss(es) for being inept and negligent in their duties.
Glad they're spending 3.5 million on a new center, but what happened is inexcusable. Especially in light of having all phones being required to have AGPS abilities. I find that disgusting that they couldn't track her down better than this with all the technology we have today.
It's plainly obvious landlines are "tied" into the system so 911 works. It should also be obvious that we've spent BILLIONS of dollars on AGPS and compatible handsets.
Now they want to do this:
"Last week, NENA announced the formation of a consortium of emergency response organizations and wireless experts to secure federal stimulus funds to upgrade 911 operations by using broadband technology. Patrick Halley, director of government affairs for NENA, says the goal is to allow callers to send video and text messages to 911 centers. "
Great, but Fix your damn tracking system first you jerks. All that crap should come secondary to the technology you already promised would work in an emergency anyway. | |
 funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | When a spectacular accident happens on the freeway, everyone thinks they have the only cell phone for miles. So, everyone calls and the lines light up. If they spent any time on the line with your friend's girlfriend, then she was one of the first callers. Otherwise, they probably just confirmed she's reporting the same thing as everyone else and had nothing to add.
AGPS is brilliant, but klunky -- it has several points of possible failure. GPS is more direct. The article said something to the effect of the particular 9-1-1 center she reached didn't have the ability to trigger AGPS and that the local center is in the process of modernizing now in the victim's honor.
One problem is testability. How can I, Joe Public, test that my phone works without unduly taxing the call center? The system has no redundancies except for you being able to give your location.
--
Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- District of Columbia -- KJ7RL
Evil does seek to maintain power by suppressing the truth, or by misleading the innocent. --Spock and McCoy stardate 5029.5 | |
amungusPremium
join:2004-11-26
America Reviews:
·AT&T DSL Service
| Still seems sad they went nearly 30 miles in the wrong direction  ..and that they couldn't have tried for a more precise location and then re-directed emergency responders while in route or something...
Didn't see that their call center was without the ability to "trigger AGPS" but I guess having them modernize is not a bad thing. All I saw in the article is:
"According to NENA, 7% of the nation's 911 centers are able to obtain only the location of the tower that picks up the wireless call and are not equipped to request GPS coordinates for the caller's location. More than 100 counties still have only this so-called Basic 911 service. Cellphone callers in these counties are unlikely to summon emergency services unless they can orally tell the operator where they are." Do digital cell towers even broadcast in a 30 mile range? I'd have to say no, they don't. Analog ones might, in extremely lucky conditions, but digital ones have far less range.
Surely with the ability to have ONLY that info, they could've provided a better response if they'd bothered (or been able) to double check...
Just sad... | | |
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