Cellphone Firms Ordered to Fix 911 System to Save Lives

Sad state of affairs but I'm glad it's about time the CRTC looked into this:

GRANT ROBERTSON

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

January 7, 2009 at 2:00 AM EST

Canada's telecom regulator will force the cellphone industry to upgrade the country's 911 system, which has fallen behind other parts of the world and may be contributing to deaths involving wireless calls for help.

Government officials said they would impose a February, 2010, deadline to install the necessary equipment to give 911 dispatchers the ability to locate cellular calls in an emergency.

The plan has not been disclosed to much of the telecom sector. It comes after a recent Globe and Mail investigation found there were several cases of fatal or near-fatal incidents last year alone where 911 dispatchers could not determine the location of the caller.

Source: The Globe and Mail

If you read further, far too many people have died cause they couldn't be found.  Yet these corporations that make billions of dollars charge us the $0.50 or $0.75 911 fee that is often retained as revenue while they let people die.  I've paid this fee for years now.  It pisses me off to find out the system is still not reliable and to read about tragedies over the last year that have happened because of this.  This could have happened to any of us on a bad night.

The US and other parts of the world has it all in place since 2005 and yet we haven't even started.  Good job Canada on being technologically a year, at least, behind the rest of the world.  Keep that power struggle in Parliament going while the rest of the world moves on.