Have you ever had to call 911 from a cell phone? Regrettably, I have. The most frustrating aspect of it was trying to explain to the operator where I was while simultaneously trying to figure if my wife and I were still in one piece.
Location detection, fail.
Now some good news. Canada’s telecom regulator has dropped the hammer on cellphone companies and now they have a year to upgrade their 911 equipment.
From Globe & Mail:
Such technology is used widely in the United States, while dispatchers in Canada have struggled without it.
On Saturday, police in Manitoba searched for nearly three hours for two children stranded in a storm on Lake Winnipeg. The children dialed 911 after their father collapsed snowmobiling. Other callers have not been as fortunate.
In January, the body of 18-year-old Matt Armstrong was found in woods near Williams Lake, B.C., 10 hours after he called 911 for help.
I hope that we won’t hear any whining from the carriers on this but, I think that we may very well. Rogers has said they will start using the location technology this summer but,
Bell Canada refused to comment on whether the deadline set by the CRTC is reasonable, but said it would work with the CRTC and emergency officials.
Indeed.
Wow. I had no idea it was that bad there. I’m glad they’ve at least got something rolling to fix that. I’ve only had to call 911 from my cell phone maybe 3 times, and each time they were able to tell me where I was located better than even I could.