FCC weighs plan to use Russian satellites for 911 system

[Ronaldski]

If American astronauts hitching a ride from the Russians to the International Space Station didn't ruffle enough feathers, there's growing concern about a proposal to use Moscow's satellites to transmit America's 911 emergency calls.

FCC weighs plan to use Russian satellite network for 911 system, raising security concerns | Fox News

 

[Jay911]

This is the jump to conclusions to beat 'em all. No more calls please, we have a winner.

GLONASS is the Russian version of GPS (which is an American product). Some newer GPS devices (can) also use the GLONASS network.

There's no "holding hostage" of 911. If GLONASS can give a position that enhances the location of a person calling 911, the data would be used. If the Russians "withheld" the data, like this alarmist "news article" suggests might happen, my fellow 911 operators and I would just get a caller without any enhanced position information (or with information from sources other than GLONASS).

The only way that GLONASS could cause harm to a 911 caller is if the location provided was completely wrong in orders of magnitude, and the conflict between that and the phone's onboard GPS was overlooked, and the 911 operator deliberately chose to ignore whatever other position information was obtained from either GPS, tower site info, or caller interrogation, and used strictly the GLONASS-provided (wrong) location.

And people who think that Russians would go to that kind of length to affect the life of one specifically random 911 caller in America, their tinfoil needs tightening.

 

[mmckenna]

I wonder how many people will freak out and not bother to do their own research on this?

Always entertaining to see how some "news" organizations will mold the headlines to scare people...

 

[mikewazowski]

Moved to Off-Topic Wireless.

 

[SCPD]

I'd say if this is true it is a VERY BAD IDEA. What's next all 911 calls routed to a call center in India and then voip over the net patched over to a radio to law enforcment? Ha

 

[mainetrunk]

911 calls/dispatch

On a side note gentlemen, here, we dial 911 by cell, and the signal goes across the state line. Nh get's it, calls the proper dispatch and THEN the call is in the right hands. 5 minutes gone..
However, if we call 911 by landline, it goes to the RCC of the immediate area, then is transferred to the CORRECT dispatch. 4--5 minutes.
South Berwick & Berwick constantly faced with 911 delays

 

[slicerwizard]

I'd say if this is true it is a VERY BAD IDEA. What's next all 911 calls routed to a call center in India and then voip over the net patched over to a radio to law enforcment? Ha

a) Of course it's NOT TRUE. GPS satellites don't carry voice traffic.

Are....................you..........................not.....................familiar..........................with.......................satellite........................hop..........................delays?

You think that would work for 911 calls?


b) Thanks for waking up a dead thread.


c) Thank you to the Mid-MI DB Admin for posting Faux News jibber jabber.

 

[SCPD]

a) Of course it's NOT TRUE. GPS satellites don't carry voice traffic.

Are....................you..........................not.....................familiar..........................with.......................satellite........................hop..........................delays?

You think that would work for 911 calls?


b) Thanks for waking up a dead thread.


c) Thank you to the Mid-MI DB Admin for posting Faux News jibber jabber.

Hmmm if it's a dead thread from ancient 2015 then maybe it should be locked. Bad idea as in why doesn't this country create it's own infrastructure rather then relying on Russia. Have a problem with my opinion? Too bad. Simple solution for me. Block you. Must be dead enough for you to reply also. Act like it's a threat from 2000. More like the reply you made is dead. Simple though block you and problem solved.

 

[SCPD]

Hmmm if it's a dead thread from ancient 2015 then maybe it should be locked. Bad idea as in why doesn't this country create it's own infrastructure rather then relying on Russia. Have a problem with my opinion? Too bad. Simple solution for me. Block you. Must be dead enough for you to reply also. Act like it's a threat from 2000. More like the reply you made is dead. Simple though block you and problem solved.

Also you have no sense of humor. Have fun replying to self like I said I'll be blocking your posts.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Hmmm if it's a dead thread from ancient 2015 then maybe it should be locked. Bad idea as in why doesn't this country create it's own infrastructure rather then relying on Russia. Have a problem with my opinion? Too bad. Simple solution for me. Block you. Must be dead enough for you to reply also. Act like it's a threat from 2000. More like the reply you made is dead. Simple though block you and problem solved.

GLONASS simply enhances the geolocation process... Surveyors have been using it for YEARS! Trimble has been selling GLONASS enabled, sub centimetre accurate RTK gear for close to 10 years(R-8 RTK GNSS survey gear).

Another faux news unrest arched fear mongering article.

Rather than seeing max 10GPS sats, you will see 15-20 sats.

 

[kayn1n32008]

This is the jump to conclusions to beat 'em all. No more calls please, we have a winner.

GLONASS is the Russian version of GPS (which is an American product). Some newer GPS devices (can) also use the GLONASS network.

There's no "holding hostage" of 911. If GLONASS can give a position that enhances the location of a person calling 911, the data would be used. If the Russians "withheld" the data, like this alarmist "news article" suggests might happen, my fellow 911 operators and I would just get a caller without any enhanced position information (or with information from sources other than GLONASS).

The only way that GLONASS could cause harm to a 911 caller is if the location provided was completely wrong in orders of magnitude, and the conflict between that and the phone's onboard GPS was overlooked, and the 911 operator deliberately chose to ignore whatever other position information was obtained from either GPS, tower site info, or caller interrogation, and used strictly the GLONASS-provided (wrong) location.

And people who think that Russians would go to that kind of length to affect the life of one specifically random 911 caller in America, their tinfoil needs tightening.

Russia can only introduce error like the P-code on GPS. they can only 'with hold' data by shutting down the sats... Then the phone uses only GPS...

 

[K5MPH]

Only fox news could make big deal out of this.......

 

[kayn1n32008]

Only fox news could make big deal out of this.......

Like

 

[Cameron314]

What a stupid story. Almost all smartphone use both GPS and GLONASS and have for years. If Putin or whoever decides to turn GLONASS off, which seems kind of unlikely then your phone will just use GPS, you will mostly likely never know the difference. The line about concern about using "Moscow's satellites to transmit America's 911 emergency calls" shows a total lack of understanding of even the very basics of how any of this works.

 

[mmckenna]

... a total lack of understanding of even the very basics of how any of this works.

Since when has a total lack of understanding ever stopped a news agency from reporting a story?

I concur, though. It's sort of funny finding "shocking" headlines like this on the web then reading the story and discovering what a load of tripe it all is.

 

[CapStar362]

GPS can not be used during phone calls anyways. when a app pulls GPS data, its simply pulling the position data from the memory and the app translates the data into a position.

cell calls rely on tower triangulation for positional data.

Clark Howard caught a ear full from me when a couple months ago went to V-103 ( radio station in Atlanta ) and said the exact same fear inciting CRAP.

he made some VERY erroneous claims, that it takes 3-5+ minutes to locate a cell user calling 911. and that is why they talk to you on the phone. uhh, last i checked, its to keep the caller CALM and to get constant status updates, not to distract them from the amount of time it takes to track them ( less than 30 seconds in most cases )

that it is 1996 technology.... sorry clark, but radio triangulation has been around since the start of WW 2 and works near flawlessly.