----- Original Message ----- From: "Rusty Shackleford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion'" <asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 6:06 PM
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-biz] FW: 911 Legislation
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Race Vanderdecken Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 3:16 PM To: 'Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion' Subject: RE: [Asterisk-biz] FW: 911 Legislation
Yes, but I have been paying fees for years to pay for the system that allows them to find me via tower triangulation.
It works.
They can get you within 100 yards easy.
Some people call it OnStar.
OnStar uses GPS, which can, on a good day, get you within a few feet. The vast majority of cell phones aren't equipped with GPS receivers. And of course, GPS doesn't work when it can't see a significant chunk of the sky.
As for "tower triangulation", no. That's the myth we've been sold, but it is rubbish. In some areas, if may be true, but most of the footprint of any given cellular service is nowhere near dense enough with "towers" to provide this kind of resolution. Those areas that are dense enough with towers, are SO dense with physical locations (cars, offices, apartments) and people (crowds), that your 100 yards can take up to 30 minutes to search in order to find the caller. And, of course, we haven't even discussed the logistical hoops involved in commencing this process.
In other words, cellular customers can NOT rely on a database to instantly show the dispatcher where the other end of a particular phone call is, the way that PSTN customers can.
So then why should users of VOIP be expected to? Again, I say we need to start calling the ATA's and our VOIP services TRAVEL CAPABLE phone services so that we are looked at as a mobile service rather than one that stays put and is seen as something that should be tied to an address.
Maybe we should just start slapping BIG stickers on the ATA's that say:
"WARNING: This adapter may be used in most locations that offer broadband and is not tied to any specific address. Since this is a TRAVEL CAPABLE phone device/service, 911 services are not available."
_______________________________________________ Asterisk-Biz mailing list Asterisk-Biz@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
