When armed robbers broke into a Houston home in 2005, Joyce John was forced to endure the sound of her parents being shot as the young woman tried to dial 911 from her bedroom using the family's Internet phone service, which failed to connect.
The incident exposed flaws in how the new industry was operating in the U.S. and Texas lawmakers moved quickly to investigate, forcing several changes – including making sure the service worked when 911 is dialled.
In Canada, a similar investigation into one of this country's more troubling 911 tragedies has moved much slower.
Eight months after the death of 18-month-old Elijah Luck in Calgary, emergency dispatchers are still waiting for regulators to act, by introducing tougher rules for how 911 calls are handled using Internet phones.
A Globe and Mail investigation indicates several key decisions – including Alberta's determination not to hold a fatality inquiry – have impeded the probe. Meanwhile, regulators are at odds with Internet phone companies over what the federal rules governing 911 calls actually say.
Elijah Luck died in Calgary in late April after confusion over the family's address led to an ambulance being dispatched to the family's former residence three provinces away in Mississauga, Ont.
Since it is difficult to tell where Internet phone calls originate, those companies are required to keep special 911 addresses on file for the 250,000 online phone users in Canada, in the event a caller can't speak or is difficult to understand.
The Luck family informed the phone company, Comwave, of their relocation to Calgary. However, the company says it did not change the Luck family's 911 address, only their billing address.
While the death has raised questions of consumer responsibility and company conduct, the incident has also raised concerns about federal oversight. The Lucks say they were not told of the address problem and had no way of knowing. Federal regulators have since acknowledged they did not monitor whether companies were making this risk clear to consumers.
But the investigation into the death has raised further issues that emergency officials now fear regulators are not looking at closely enough.
OTHER CONCERNS
A day after Elijah's the death, Tom Sampson, Calgary's chief of Emergency Medical Services, was the first to investigate the botched 911 call.
However, when Mr. Sampson placed a test call to 911 using the Luck family's Internet phone, he said there was no response after numerous rings, though he did not recall how many rings it took before a dispatcher picked up.
“It took some time for the phone to be answered,” Mr. Sampson said in an interview. It was a concern the Luck family had also raised.
When the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) allowed Internet phone services to operate as telecom companies in 2005, the regulator allowed them to operate their own 911 call centres. It was an unusual move, but it was meant as a temporary solution, since connecting Internet phone services to emergency dispatchers in each city was difficult and expensive. These call takers were to receive information from callers and pass it to emergency crews in the appropriate city.
Mr. Sampson said the person who answered his call refused to share her location and other basic details with Calgary EMS, which slowed its investigation. Though emergency call centres rarely disclose their location as a security measure, Mr. Sampson was trying to determine how the call was being routed.
“We identified ourselves…They were reluctant. I think they knew something might have been up, but we identified right away that there was a [problem],” Mr. Sampson said.
“We asked to be put through to Calgary 911 dispatch and we eventually did get through but it was a substantive delay.”
Federal regulators, who oversee the telecom sector and 911, have not conducted their own tests. The CRTC's report on the matter draws mostly on Comwave's explanations of the incident.
Mr. Sampson said the delay concerned him. He said regulators should look into the matter.
NO FORMAL INQUIRY
In Alberta, provincial authorities closed the books on Elijah's case soon after the toddler's death, choosing not to hold a fatality inquiry.
