[VoiceOps] VOIP related 911 deaths

[Alex Balashov]

And on a similar note replete with the hallmarks of inductive logic:   
For every sensational death or other ultimate catastrophe  
probabilistically attributable to VoIP E911 issues, there are probably  
thousands of cases of minor injuries, increased wait times, and other  
situations where the argument could be made that the response should  
have been more efficient and/or the problem resolved faster and more  
accurately.

I have seen that come up as a dominant talking point in the context of  
calls getting routed to the wrong (in an administrative sense, not  
necessarily geographic) PSAP, or ALI information in fixed-line E911  
databases not being up to date or applicable at the moment the call  
was placed.

As VoIP gets more even more mobile and nomadic than it already is, I  
suspect there won't be any serious solutions until some sort of  
sufficiently universal GPS or transponder triangulation scheme similar  
to what cell carriers do for 911 is arrived at.

And, of course, that is replete with privacy and due process  
implications.

Not a simple problem by any stretch of the imagination, even beyond  
the technology and standardization aspects.

-- 
Sent from mobile device

On Aug 25, 2009, at 12:11 PM, Justin B Newman <justin at ejtown.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 11:09 AM, David Hiers<hiersd at gmail.com> wrote:
>> How many people have died because of mis-configured 911 VOIP  
>> services?
>>
>> I know of two such cases, one in FL and one in Calgary.
>
> Do you mean to say, "How many people have died following a failed
> attempt to dial 911 via VoIP"?
>
> I would suggest that it is rare for medical professionals to say with
> certainty that had a call been "correctly" terminated to a 911
> operator that a person's life *would* have been saved.  Only that
> there would have been an increased likelihood of the caller surviving.
>
> Semantics, yes.  But ... a worthy distinction in my opinion.
>
> Yours,
>
> -jbn
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