On 2016-04-14 16:14, Larry Sheldon wrote:
Quick question: What happens (in the purely hypothetical case, I sincerely hope) if the building is on fire and it turns out that the VOIP-phone is the only one that works?
VOIP: Not purely theoretical situation. 911 where I live would take about 10 minutes of repeating my address and spelling it out to different people as I got passed around until I finally got to fire dept where I could finally and one last time spell out address. (I live on Fairwood, there is a street near here Sherwood). My ISP geolocates to a different down in south shore of montreal). What I do now: I have the actual telephone number for the fire station 3 blocks from where I live. When appt building alarm rings (we're not directly connected), I call the actual dept "have you received a call for <address>, we're on fire". They say "no, we haven't". I say "expect one in about 10 minutes once I get through the 911 bozos". When you call 911, you first have to select from a gazillion languages. Cell phone: Got hit by hit and run, but managed to stay on my bike. Arm hurt like hell. Was mad as hell. Made mistake of calling 911 who refused to pass me to Sureté du Québec police (rural area). I was hoping they had a car that was in area and could intercept that white car as it intersected with main road a few km down the road. 911 insisted they send an ambulance, that I was in shock etc etc. They asked me to spell out the street I was on. Told them I had to get to the next intersection with a country rd to see the spelling. (meanwhile, they insist I don't move because they want to send ambulance, not believing I was still on my bike rolling at low speed). At no point did they give me ANY indication they had my location from towers or my iphone. When I finally go through to the SQ, we arranged to meet at intersection with main road. They saw my bruised arm, and saw I was quite mad/nervous/in shock. They told me to bypass 911 alltogether and call *4141 to get them right away and that they have the same tools to locate a call. ((in hindsight, drunk young guys accelerated to high speed and passed right next to me and threw something at me which it my arm at high speed. Initially though I had hit their mirror but mirror t low to have hit near shoulder).