[188771] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: phone fun,
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Owen DeLong)
Thu Apr 14 17:48:11 2016
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com>
In-Reply-To: <20160414210144.1859.qmail@ary.lan>
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2016 14:46:48 -0700
To: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
> On Apr 14, 2016, at 14:01 , John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> wrote:
>=20
>> OK, let us suppose I want to be a law biding, up right American and =
use=20
>> only a cellphone for the "right" area.
>>=20
>> I drive a big truck OTR. I usually know what part of which state I =
am=20
>> in, but I frequently do not know which part of what state I will be =
in=20
>> in 24 hours.
>>=20
>> What should I do?
>=20
> As previous messages have explained, mobile 9-1-1 uses a variety of
> GPS and tower info to determine where you are. Telcos, stupid though
> they may be, have figured out that people with mobile phones are
> likely to be, you know, mobile.
Now if they could only figure this out for VOIP clients.
I realize that there are fixed-location VOIP phones and they may be the =
majority,
but I also know that there are quite a few of us with VOIP clients that =
are as
mobile as our mobile phones, sometimes more so since my VOIP client =
doesn=E2=80=99t turn
into $2/min. when I enter the wrong country. Amusingly, 128k free data =
from T-Mo
as a mobile hot spot in many countries is quite adequate for a VOIP =
client while
making a call on the phone would cost $$.
> If you drive a big truck, you're likely to spend a lot of time on
> major highways, and many of those highways have signs that tell you
> what to dial to contact the appropriate police for that road, e.g.
> *MSP on the Mass Pike.
Depends on where you are. I=E2=80=99ve never seen such a sign anywhere =
on any major highway
in California and mobile 911 calls in this state often get =
=E2=80=9Cinteresting=E2=80=9D routing.
Fortunately, I=E2=80=99ve never encountered a dispatcher that required =
answers to more than
one additional question in order to comply with my request that they =
route to the
correct agency (I usually start off with enough information to tell them =
I know why
I want to speak to the agency I am specifying, such as =E2=80=9CI=E2=80=99=
m reporting an incident
on {US/Interstate/State Hwy specification, e.g. US 101}, please transfer =
me to CHP=E2=80=9D
(CHP =3D California Highway Patrol, which has dispatch jurisdiction for =
all state and
federal highways within California).
OTOH, I=E2=80=99ve been in parts of Canada where the signs merely =
specify that there is no
911 service beyond that point without offering any alternative. Of =
course most of those
signs were encountered well after my mobile stopped having any service =
whatsoever,
so I always found them mildly amusing. Most of them are a giant picture =
of a motorola
Brick phone from the late =E2=80=9880s with the message =E2=80=9CLeaving =
911 service area=E2=80=9D.
I can=E2=80=99t find an appropriate image to reference in a google =
search, but I assure you
that they were common place, at least last time I was in the Yukon.
Owen
