[Asterisk-biz] FW: 911 Legislation

[Rusty Shackleford]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com 
> [mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com] 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.


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