ISDN4BSD removal

[perryh at pluto.rain.com]

Steven Friedrich <FreeBSD at insightbb.com> wrote:
> On Friday 08 October 2010 12:22:40 pm Dimitry Andric wrote:
> > On 2010-10-08 18:12, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote:
> > > Another thing about VoIP calls: have they solved the
> > > "emergency call needs a location" problem? Here (again: in
> > > Norway) they are still working out how to solve this: if you
> > > call emergency services (police, fire department, etc.) from
> > > yout VoIP number; how do the emergency center locate you?
> > 
> > Ehm, you tell them?  You have them on the phone. :)
>
> Um, could be a kid that dialed the phone, or someone may have
> lost consciousness. 

Or still be conscious, but unable to speak for one reason or
another, choking being the first example that comes to mind;
or is just too stressed out by the situation to be coherent.

Originally, at least in the U.S., 911 systems had no automatic
locator mechanism and depended on the caller being able to provide
location.  It didn't take all that long to discover that a small
but significant fraction of very serious emergencies demanded more.

> How can this still be a problem?  Congres mandated that all
> phones have GPS, didn't they?

Er, did you miss the part about "in Norway"?  I somehow doubt
that any U.S. mandate, even if one existed, would apply there.

BTW cell phones are nowhere near as troublesome in this regard
as VoIP.  With cell, dispatch at least knows that the caller
is within range of the tower that's handling the call.  With
VoIP they could be halfway around the world.