DreamWraith
Premium
join:2004-04-07
Mount Vernon, WA
| Re:911
The statement that there is no easy way to locate where a VOIP box is, is IMO, not the case. A simple tracert, combined with lookups on the IP might not give you an exact address, but at the very least, an idea of where it's general vicinity it. That should be enough to, at the very least, direct the call to the closest 911 center. That is just a matter of implementation.
If they WANTED to, they could take it a step futher. They could set up the voip service to store exact address information inside the modem, which can be changed on the fly, and then transmitted over the lines. Again, just a matter of implementation.
Cellphone systems, while to a certain extent automatically can determine your location, will sometimes get confused. For instance, there is a cell tower in my town, and another across the county line ~10 miles away. If i am visiting a friend out in the country in between, i could connect to either tower at any given time.
Furthermore, Although it is possible to determine a near exact geophysical location of a cellphone at the given time of a call, at the current time, it is very expensive, and is usually only possible in metro areas. It takes at least 3 cellphone towers to triangulate the exact location of a cell phone. Aside from that, about all you can get would be a somewhat ok judged "search" radius based on signal strength and SNR. The only real cure for this is GPS in all phones. But we know where that would go... Government tracking our every move conspiracies... etc... etc...
Every system has it's problems. And every system has a lot of things they could do to make it better. It is simply a matter of implementation.
I use Vonage myself, and I don't personally take my Vonage box anywhere. I DO see the reason some might though, (traveling businesspeople), and, simply for ease of use, it would be nice if Vonage would implement some better stuff. The main problem I have, is that it takes 3-5 days for your 911 address to update. I don't see any reason for this. IMO it should be instant. Also, address verification should not be done, because in some cases, a person may live in a newly developed area, and their address may not officially exist "on the books". As of yet, my 911 service is seamless for me. My address and phone number go through t 911 without a hitch. I know, because my wife has seizures, and i have already had to make the call once.
Anyways, that is my 3.5 cents. |
