Monday, September 12, 2005

 

e-911, etc.

Jonathan says:
Did you know that any cell phone in the US, whether it's been "activated" or not with a calling plan, can make a 911 call. Know why? Because there is an overriding public interest in the provisioning of emergency services - that supercedes the interest of any individual corporation. Personally, I appreciate the availability of the service. I've never used it, but I'm glad it's there.

He goes on to raise an interesting question about what internet services have the same social value of the 911 service and thus should be subjected to the same universal availability regardless of one's ability to pay. He cites FEMA's use of document sharing, text messaging, email, VOIP, etc. in the rescue effort. At what point do these technologies become social utilities? And if they are, which company's file format or transmission protocol are we to use? Should public service documents be published in MS-Word format? Should emergency text messaging be in AOL AIM protocol? VOIP vis Skype?

This is a job for Congress!

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