[bungie4]

My job is upgrading and maintaining 911 and other life safety systems.

The article is correct, advancing technologies are not reflected by additional capabilities by PSAPs, DISA's or ILEC's (The ppl that foward your call to a responder). It was only recently that IP based 911 sending of ANI/ALI (Telephone/Location data) data has been implemented on a large scale. In Canada, it ran on an old packet switched network for ages!

Their are different flavors of 911. E911 (Enhanced), V911 for VoIP phones, and recently the addition of Wifi based calling among others. The original 911 systems was designed when phones were static, they didn't move. Nowadays, with cell, voip and now, wifi devices, theirs no telling where the call (device) originates from. Yes, most send long/lat data, but that is based on triangulation of cell towers and not accurate enough. To further complicate things, long/lat doesn't take into account altitude. In a urban setting, the responders maybe at ground level wondering just which building and floor originated the call (yes, their systems to deal with this but not widely implemented, and, failing that, if the caller is unable to speak, you have a larger issue).

Most responders don't even have the ability to map a long/lat. So at this point, the accuracy is moot.

All that being said. The E911 system works well. Cell/VoIP/Wifi, not so much. The call will generate a response, but it's hardly efficient.

[MichaelGG]

Then there's the idea that they'll go totally internet based, allowing forwarding or conferencing in multiple psaps, translators, etc. Somehow, they're supposed to secure all this, but I'm doubtful. It'd be one of the largest secure federated networks in the world I think. And they aren't exactly tech savvy. Doing one of the first wide-scale VoIP 911 services, we had psaps call us to say they wouldn't take phone calls from VoIP users, even on their landlines, because "they might send us viruses".

NENA folks also wanted the FCC to mandate an IP location system to be available on every Internet connection - what a privacy mess that'd be, when any app with IP access could get your exact location down to the apt number.

I trie experimenting with what I named "Advanced 911". For calls to places where we couldn't deliver location info, we'd prompt the answer to press a key to have us speak the info. But getting adoption for that was super difficult.

Also, the stress involved in those jobs, wow. I thought I could handle stuff, but auditing problem calls where people were dying, panicking, and didn't know where they were - that's traumatic. Also made me really dislike how cavalier 911 is handled by the telecos.

[bungie4]

We have dedicated staff whose job it is to audit calls. ALL calls are recorded and we do screen snaps every 5 seconds, or, anytime the screen changes. Were talking terabytes of data. We keep it going back many years.

I'll vouch for the stress of the job. If I f'up. Somebody can die. Same thing for the operators. They get 3 months of training before handling calls. Most wash out before their training is completed. Most, shortly after that. The churn is unbelievable. We hire constantly. All operators max out their sick/vacation days. It's an unpleasant, boring, terrifying job.

[eropple]

This sounds like an interesting technical problem. If you're up for chatting about it further, I'd be interested in hearing more about it--my email's in my profile.

[bungie4]

It's not really a technical problem, it's an adoption/money problem.

[eropple]

> Most responders don't even have the ability to map a long/lat. So at this point, the accuracy is moot.

This is genuinely surprising to me. The operators having trouble makes sense, because phones are something of a rolling disaster, but responders aren't using GPSes that can do this?

[bungie4]

I'm sorry, I should clarify. Their are many layers of 'responders', their maybe just one, your call was routed to the local police. It may have been routed to call center in that area, who in turn broker the call, etc.

Imagine a situation where your traveling down an interstate out in the boonies. Theirs a wreck. You call 911 from your cell. The responder will receive an approximation of your location, likely the closet cell tower. From that, and before being able to send a responder, they must determine WHO to call based on your location. Just because your closer to town B than town A doesn't mean town B gets the call. Town B may forward your call to town A. Then, you have to determine where to dispatch too. It's doubtful you know the closest mile marker. Only your direction of travel, and the last area that you can remember.

It's strictly a best effort.

[mindcrime]

It may have been routed to call center in that area, who in turn broker the call, etc.

Yep. I was a 911 dispatcher for a while and can confirm this. I worked for Brunswick County (NC) 911, which borders New Hanover County (NC), Columbus County (NC) and Horry County (SC). Cell phone calls were usually sent to the right place, but if you were way out in the boonies on highway 211 near the Brunswick / Columbus line, if was about 50/50 which 911 center would get the call. And we'd occasionally get a call that was dialed in New Hanover County, Horry County, and - rarely - even further away. So on those calls, we had to try and quickly determine exactly where the caller was, so we could relay the information to the other county for dispatch. Sometimes if we weren't exactly sure and the call seemed to be near the line, we'd dispatch units and request the neighboring county to dispatch theirs as well, and then let the responders figure it out when the arrived.

I took a call once that, as far as I could tell, turned out to be several counties over... something like Pender or Duplin County. We didn't even have their contact info logged anywhere, since it was thought (at the time) that there would never be any need for us to contact, say, Duplin County. I had to call New Hanover County, ask them if they had the number for Pender (who they border), then call them, etc. The term "clusterfuck" comes to mind, but luckily that only ever happened once that I can remember.

Note that this was in the mid 90's and I'm not sure if things are better, worse, or the same now.

[13of40]

> The responder will receive an approximation of your location, likely the closet cell tower

Are you saying the GPS they mandated in cell phones ten years ago, ostensibly just for this purpose, doesn't actually do its job most of the time?

[bungie4]

You can't depend on it because people turn them off. Hell, I leave mine off.

[13of40]

Sure, you can't depend on it, but I'd expect most people leave it on the default setting.

[eropple]

Gotcha - thank you for the detailed response.