I guess that makes sense considering most of the less-intelligent public
will dial 911 for even the most mundane issues, but I can see where that
will cause serious confusion with adjacent locales, especially if
there's one that doesn't want you calling 911 unless your house is
burning AND someone's stabbed you 50 times.

I guess the problem is that everyone has a different perspective on what
constitutes an "emergency."  Evidently, west suburban chicago has just
given up altogether on trying to define it.

Where I live (just a few miles from you), we have a 7-digit number that
goes straight to the 911 desk. In fact the last four digits of that number
are 0911.

The main problem I see with using regular numbers instead of 911 is that
the phone and the cellular system won't treat it as an emergency call --
the phone will stick to its PRL instead of taking the best signal it can
find regardless of the carrier.

I used to also worry that the call would be charged as a normal call, until
I realized that 45 cents per minute overage is a cheap price to pay for
putting out a fire sooner or saving a life. (Not to mention that I never
use even half of my minutes anyway.)

None taken, I understand what defib does and I did use the word "restart"

Most people don't pay attention to this type of stuff and just assume it
works. vonage is especially troublesome because you plug your normal
phones into it so people don't realize something is different. A friend
just got vonage in a house with both kids and an elderly parent and had
absolutely no idea that 911 doesn't work properly using vonage.

 911

dean, you're correct about wireless 9-1-1 not providing a specific
address but wireless 9-1-1 calls can provide no data on the caller's
location or some data on the caller's location or a latitide/longitude
plot representing the caller's location.  it all depends on several
factors including the technology (or lack thereof) in the caller's
phone, the method of plotting a caller used by the carrier, whether
that method has been implemented in the caller's area and whether or
not the e9-1-1 PSAP (public safety answering point) is equipped to
receive and utilize the data.  

wireless 9-1-1 is implemented over four phases.  phase 0 means the
call reaches a call center but no data on the caller or the caller's
location is transmitted.  the next phase (we called it phase 1/2)
provides the cell tower location and maybe the specific face of the
tower being used.  phase 1 provides the caller's callback telephone
number.  phase 2 provides phase 1 data along with a map plot.

best case scenario...the caller has a newer phone equipped to transmit
the lat/long thru a carrier that has implemented that solution in the
caller's area to the properly equipped e9-1-1 psap.  the e9-1-1
operator receives the call and begins speaking with the caller.
meanwhile, the database retrieves the wireless account owner's name
and callback number.  a separate plot of the lat/long data is applied
to a digitized map at the e9-1-1 operator's work station.  depending
on factors such as how accurate the map is, is the caller inside a
structure, is the caller inside a moving vehicle, etc. the plot can be
as much as 30 meters off.  if you're in the wilds of wyoming that's
not too bad.  if you're in downtown chicago 30 meters can be
problematic.  the plot will not provide elevation so  if you're in a
highrise building or anywhere above the 1st floor you had better tell
the operator.  

all of the above is for a GPS equipped phone.  the fcc has allowed the
wireless carriers to choose between a GPS (lat/long) solution and what
they call a network solution.  the network solution is basically good
old fashioned triangulation.  the error with this method can be as
much as 100 meters.  but the good news is that phones do not have to
be replaced.  before i retired from the biz there were a couple of
carriers considering the network solution but i don't know if they
finalized that or went with a GPS solution.  

73,
rich, n9dko
(thankfully retired)