MED 111 study suggests mandatory GPS for mobile phones

The Ministry of Economic Development has released a discussion paper that suggests mandatory location and power services for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) devices.

The paper as well raised the ideas of mandatory GPS technologies in new mobile phones, new SMS emergency and broadcast text services and the introduction of penalty interconnection charges for telco service providers for non-genuine emergency calls.

The review was announced by the Minister for Communications and Information Research in December last year and the discussion paper looks at various strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities of the 111 service.

Lot of issues coming up which

Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand chief executive Paul Brislen said there were a lot of issues coming up which would impact on the ability to service 111.

Location location location The paper said it was important for emergency service providers to have back up location information about callers in case the caller was unable to speak. This information was automatically available for landlines nevertheless not for mobile clients or for fixed broadband lines, through which VOIP calls were routed.

The paper said during less expensive than GPS

The paper said during less expensive than GPS and able to locate cell phone calls within buildings, cell site triangulation was not as accurate as GPS and was usually ineffective outside main centres, due to lower cell tower density.

GPS expensive The paper said considerations included the fact that GPS technologies did not work so then inside buildings and that the cost of installing chips and using the research was expensive.

Mr Brislen said there were a lot of concerns about whether or not slippage into surveillance occurred, just as government monitoring of phone calls and tracking of user movement.

"So long as they manage that, at that time I think it’s probably a good idea, particularly in terms of the at once 10 years when most people will end up using mobile phones for voice calls over a land line."

"There are benefits to both sides of this – there’s thoroughly advantages to having GPS capabilities. Clearly not all phones will have that, even with the price of GPS coming down dramatically, you’ll on the whole get people on very old phones."

The discussion paper as well said an emerging issue

The discussion paper as well said an emerging issue would be whether VOIP service providers should be required to configure their networks to provide location information for VOIP devices. The paper said the volume of emergency calls from VOIP handsets, during currently a small proportion of total emergency calls, was increasing. VOIP devices were nomadic, and the linking of telephone numbers and IP addresses presented considerable complexity in the provision of location information.

Mr Brislen said this was more difficult as international VOIP providers could be used. It was a concern to the government that someone who needed help in a hurry may not necessarily be able to get it if they were using a VOIP service, he said.

"I don’t think it’s a cheap solution to be able to include VOIP capability because a lot of these services are delivered by international players who will not make changes for the New Zealand market.

He said source location of VOIP calls could be mandated nevertheless could prove more difficult in practice than it appeared on paper, to illustrate using VOIP over mobile devices would be difficult to identify and pinpoint clients.

Major issue

Misdials False calls were a major issue, with about 50% of 111 calls handled by initial call answering point operators were false, usually made up of children playing with phones and misdials.

There were a number of options to address this, the paper said, including a public awareness campaigns, changing the 111 number to one less likely to be dialled inadvertently and the introduction of penalty interconnection charges for telecommunication service providers for non-genuine calls.

The phone companies can do

"There is thoroughly nothing that the phone companies can do, short of inventing telepathy, to figure out whether or not it’s a genuine 111 call."

The paper said the use of texting in accessing emergency services was problematic, since it used "store and forward" innovation which could result in delays, and the fact that emergency personnel needed to speak with people to ascertain the nature and location of the emergency.

Power me up, Scotty VoIP phones could not be powered as traditional calls made via a copper fixed line were ie through a telephone exchange, and in this way the increased use of VoIP phones without power back up to protect against mains failure meant an increased proportion of telephone calling was vulnerable to mains electricity failure.

"The current TCF Code for house wiring refers to uninterrupted power supply equipment as discretionary. Consideration needs to be given to whether such equipment should be made available by all telecommunications service providers supplying telephone service."

The location of a phone - great at that time what?

Gps can pin point the location of a phone - great at that time what? How does that information get sent to the help centre? Gps can take up to several minutes to get a fix - its no good in a built up city or car park. Gps drains so much power that most people have it turned off. Gps will not work. I wonder how much the govt will waste to come to the same conclusion?

Why stop at GPS for phones? The real issue is about locating people, not handsets. Handsets have become the focus as they are the device over which the emergency call is made - the ability to locate the caller is an 'accidental byproduct' of the calling mechanism. in other words than recreating a system based on the proxy why not address the real issue of developing emergency systems based upon identifying the location of individuals. These may need to use traditional phone lines.