My advice is don't just keep it cancelled, but to spend the bare minimum and use it only for emergencies. Program in numbers for AAA and non emergency numbers (phone book) for law enforcement etc for instances where you need vehicle help or whatever.
Remember, when you dial 911 for your broken down car, we might end up having to put the person who is doing CPR on their loved one on hold to answer your call.
It's true that cell phones have had gps for years now. The problem is that most 911 centers don't have the technology yet to do anything with it. Arizona (where I'm a Supervisor at a 911 center) in fact only has a small area where they are testing this technology. The vast majority of Arizona (including Phoenix) doesn't have location for cell phones or even your phone number when you call 911. It will probably be years before this is even close to nationwide.
You might want to read the Vonage web site. You need to give them your physical address, but that's so they can try to pick the closest 911 center to route your call to. The problem with this is that they route the call to an Admin line because they cannot route to 911 lines. We do not get locations or phone numbers automatically from VOIP callers.
As a supervisor in a 911 Communications center, I have first hand knowledge of these problems.
First, we have saved many lives just in the last year because we know locations from regular phones, and we are not an overly large center. So the arguement that if you can't speak it's too late for you anyway probably wouldn't hold much water with those we have saved. We are in a very popular resort town, and we have similar problems with resorts and timeshares. Most simply will not pay for the software to be able to tell which room the 911 call came from. It's only a matter of time until a lawsuit changes their mind.
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My advice is don't just keep it cancelled, but to spend the bare minimum and use it only for emergencies. Program in numbers for AAA and non emergency numbers (phone book) for law enforcement etc for instances where you need vehicle help or whatever. Remember, when you dial 911 for your broken down car, we might end up having to put the person who is doing CPR on their loved one on hold to answer your call.
It's true that cell phones have had gps for years now. The problem is that most 911 centers don't have the technology yet to do anything with it. Arizona (where I'm a Supervisor at a 911 center) in fact only has a small area where they are testing this technology. The vast majority of Arizona (including Phoenix) doesn't have location for cell phones or even your phone number when you call 911. It will probably be years before this is even close to nationwide.
You might want to read the Vonage web site. You need to give them your physical address, but that's so they can try to pick the closest 911 center to route your call to. The problem with this is that they route the call to an Admin line because they cannot route to 911 lines. We do not get locations or phone numbers automatically from VOIP callers.
As a supervisor in a 911 Communications center, I have first hand knowledge of these problems. First, we have saved many lives just in the last year because we know locations from regular phones, and we are not an overly large center. So the arguement that if you can't speak it's too late for you anyway probably wouldn't hold much water with those we have saved. We are in a very popular resort town, and we have similar problems with resorts and timeshares. Most simply will not pay for the software to be able to tell which room the 911 call came from. It's only a matter of time until a lawsuit changes their mind.