999 facilities in Ireland?

DrunkinP

hey dudes,...

does anyone know anything about emergency calls in ireland routed over Voip networks? do they work? do we have enhanced 999 services in ireland like E911 in the states??

it was a pretty big issue in the states , would be interesting to see where Ireland stands on it :rolleyes:

anyone advise please?

RangeR

We don't have anything similar to E911 for VoIP. I would hazard an educated guess that we don't have any sort of E911 type service at all.

If you ring 999 from a normal landline, the emergancy services can locate the premises from where you called.

However, they have no way of doing this on a VoIP call. You MUST make sure that they know exactley where you are if you have to make that call. Otherwise they will not find you.

Also, a power cut will, more than likely, not allow you to make any calls. Adding in a UPS [for router, ATA and IP phone] might help.

GerardKeating

IrishTLR wrote:

Also, a power cut will, more than likely, not allow you to make any calls. Adding in a UPS [for router, ATA and IP phone] might help.

Even this is not a guarantee, NTL-BB can go down during powercuts.

RangeR

Good point

WillieFlynn

IrishTLR wrote:

However, they have no way of doing this on a VoIP call. You MUST make sure that they know exactley where you are if you have to make that call. Otherwise they will not find you.

This is the same as if you use a mobile phone. They have no idea where you are.

IrishTLR wrote:

Also, a power cut will, more than likely, not allow you to make any calls. Adding in a UPS [for router, ATA and IP phone] might help.

Some people have the same problem, if they only use cordless phones.

Extended power cuts over a few hours can lead to loss of service with normal PSTN lines.

Anyway as most people have mobiles, I don't think it is such a big problem.

RangeR

WillieFlynn wrote:

This is the same as if you use a mobile phone. They have no idea where you are.

Not quite true. Indeed they do not know where you are, but if they think the case is important enough they can easily find you be getting the MobCo to triangulate your position down to a very small area, couple hundred square feet, maybe less.

This is much easier than tracing an IP address, which the emergancy operator might not even have if you ring from a hard phone via ATA, in my case anyway.


Actually, here's another question. If I call someone using my VoIP phone, my caller ID shows up as 045 xxx. I would assume that the ermergancy services could locate me with that.

Actually, I just tried this from eyeBeam too, and my phone number showed up as 045 xxx. Does this mean that if Blueface give you a geographic number, that the emergancy services can locate you to your address? Assuming of course, that you are calling from home.

WillieFlynn

IrishTLR wrote:

Not quite true. Indeed they do not know where you are, but if they think the case is important enough they can easily find you be getting the MobCo to triangulate your position down to a very small area, couple hundred square feet, maybe less.

Unless they have set up location tracking system in advance, it isn't that easy for them to locate you. They can easly tell which base station and possibly in which direction the phone is in. Look at the Robert Holahan case a year ago in Midleton, CoCork, they were doing everything to find him, including locating his phone. It took them a very long time to narrow down where the phone was. According to media reports the were even varing the base station power levels to see when it lost the signal.

In principle (and if the software is set up on the base stations) they could send a signal to the phone and time how long it takes to reply. From that you can tell how far from the base station it is. And depending on how the base stations is setup you could also tell roughly which direction the phone is in.

However in cities the size of the cell is small and just knowing which base station will give a reasnable fix.

This is much easier than tracing an IP address, which the emergancy operator might not even have if you ring from a hard phone via ATA, in my case anyway.

You will still have an IP address when using an ATA. Tracing an IP address is very easy.......... Anyone can lookup which ISP an address is assigned to and the ISP can tell who and where that address is at any given time.

Unless possibly you are using some wireless internet connections.... Then you are back to the same problem as locating a mobile phone.

Actually, I just tried this from eyeBeam too, and my phone number showed up as 045 xxx. Does this mean that if Blueface give you a geographic number, that the emergancy services can locate you to your address? Assuming of course, that you are calling from home.

Yes, blueface could give them the address you gave them.