[e2e] Skype and congestion collapse.

[Cannara]

Actually, David, I wasn't talking about cell phones, but wired lines. 
However, I did need to use 911 via a cell some months back, when an idiot kid
was shooting BBs at cars passing near where we live.  He was dumb enough to
shoot at my wife's side of the car as we cruised back past, trying to identify
his house.  So I called 911, which in Calif goes to the CHP.  The CHP called
the Sheriff and within minutes 2 cars were there.  The officers said they'd
give the kid a real scare and put him in one car, while talking about going to
Juvenile Hall.  They then impressed on him the seriousness of what he'd done,
and he also gave up his friend, who had hidden in the garage.  Then the absent
parent returned home in his obligatory SUV to witness how well he'd brought up
his kid.  As the officers explained to all of them the illegality off such
weapons in our county, they also let the twist in the wind a bit wondering if
we'd press charges.  After some time, we let the officers know we wouldn't and
they said they'd make the kids write letters of apology.  They did a good job
of that, cutting short potential lives of crime -- all thanks to a cellphone
and 911.  :]

At some point, laws and trust can and do work together to provide reliable
emergency services.  IP phone isn't there yet.

Alex

"David P. Reed" wrote:
> 
> Alex - the underlying assumption is that traditional telephony delivers
> 911 functionality best.   Well, the word on the street is that in
> California, if you call 911 on your basic, non IP cell phone, your exact
> position is delivered to ... well, no one knows where, but it's a place
> that has no capability to actually transfer that information to anyone
> who actually can help you in an emergency.   Better to call directory
> assistance for the phone number of your local police dept. and hope they
> don't tell you "911", because that will guarantee 30-90 minutes of
> screwing around.
> 
> OK, maybe wired phones still do 911 OK, but do PBXes?   I doubt it - so
> the point about bosses may be bogus as well.
> 
> Here the argument that 911 should be "in the network" fails.   I'd much
> rather have my actual physical telephone be smart enough to figure out
> how to summon emergency services (perhaps finding the doctor who is in
> the next cubicle over if the SLP emergency service existed), I think.
> 
> Dale Hatfield points out that the phone companies have made it
> *impossible* to deploy a "911-like" service over the WWW, because who
> can trust that a person would actually tell the truth that they have a
> life or death situation on their hands.   But of course we can ALL trust
> Verizon Wireless with our lives... yeah right.