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emergency phone provision


Dave m

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2 hours ago, adam2 said:

Hope that it does not happen.

 

Back in 2012 we were working on a show which had a short run in Croydon before transferring to Minack. During the tech in Croydon the LD felt ill and took himself home, only to be carted off to King's cardiac unit. It was noted afterwards that had that happened at Minack, he might not have been with us now. 

Edited by alistermorton
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I upgraded my BT line to fibre - with a competitor. Cheaper and of course mega fast up and down - BUT - forgot about the phone line, so went with a voip provider, and it works fine, until yesterday when somebody messed up and fibre died in the town - mine was off for 16 hours - restoring at midnight. My burglar alarm started to get cross because the net connection was gone, and was working on the cellular backup - but phone service here can be a bit tricky - the office and studio is in a basement. What a pain. No comms or anything. I sat there and it suddenly clicked - if I fell, or was ill, I was totally stuck. Eggs in one basket for me on my own is one thing, but for a bigger building with higher risks and more people, having no communications at all is quite scary.

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While most in this place could run a UPS for phone and IT support, sadly it's useless if the network providers do not back up their nodes. 

Every theatre has back up for lighting but few (none?) have back up for phones and switchboard even fewer have backup for their whole IT system, even then no-one knows what the network operators will have supported through a power cut.

During the tube bombing emergency, the landline network was rock solid even though the mobile network was unusable.

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9 hours ago, Jivemaster said:

During the tube bombing emergency, the landline network was rock solid even though the mobile network was unusable.

The issue was that the mobile networks became overloaded with calls and call attempts at the base station level. 

The landline network can also be overloaded in a similar way, E.g., if too many calls are offered to a particular number that cannot accept them.

For interest current Ofcom guidlines re VOIP Phones can be found here. Ofcom guidance document

 

There is also a more general Ofcom consultation on telcos compliance with Security duties currently open.

The webpage can be found here  Consultation: General policy on ensuring compliance with security duties

 

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I believe that the land line system used (when it was state owned) to have quite sophisticated priority disconnection in place - not just that 999 calls could kick other callers off the system in order to obtain the capacity needed to get through, but also calls to other numbers deemed important (Doctor's surgeries were the ones mentioned) could trigger the disconnection of "normal" calls when capacity between exchanges was exceeded.

These days there should be much more capacity available, but I don't think these provisions have been made mandatory for mobile providers, despite Ofcom now regarding them as the primary mechanism to contact the emergency services.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/26/2022 at 2:45 PM, alistermorton said:

Back in 2012 we were working on a show which had a short run in Croydon before transferring to Minack. During the tech in Croydon the LD felt ill and took himself home, only to be carted off to King's cardiac unit. It was noted afterwards that had that happened at Minack, he might not have been with us now. 

I suspect that the victim would have survived just fine if the illness had occurred at the Minack, Provided that telephone service was available. A 999 call could be made from the Minack theatre offices or from a cellphone. If prompt road access was not possible, then the air ambulance could be used.

If however a significant power failure had interrupted both cellphone and landline telephone services, then it could have ended very badly.

Reliance would have to be placed on either a satellite phone, IF ANYONE HAD ONE, or on amateur radio equipment, if anyone had this, perhaps in their car. Or even firing a red flare which in a coastal location should bring the coastguard or lifeboat. All very uncertain compared to ringing 999.

Edited by adam2
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  • 4 months later...

One of the latest smartphones has limited satellite connectivity, limited to text messages. The purpose of this facility is said to be for calling the emergency services from remote locations without cellphone service.  Presumably it would also work in an urban area where cellphone service was unavailable due to a power failure.

This facility is free of charge for the first two years, after which it may be chargeable.

If this new feature works reliably, and becomes more widely available, then it could be most useful for emergencies.

An Inmarsat satellite telephone is better as it permits of full two way voice communication, expensive though. The high cost of satellite calls is of little importance for hopefully rare emergencies, but the up-front cost is significant. AFAIK, one satellite telephone is powered by disposable lithium AA cells with a 20 year shelf life, thereby avoiding all concerns regarding the status of seldom used rechargeable batteries. 

The hurricane Ian disaster in the USA is rather off topic here, but it may be observed in passing that satellite phones have proved most useful in the large areas without cellphone or wired telephone service.

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5 hours ago, adam2 said:

One of the latest smartphones has limited satellite connectivity, limited to text messages. The purpose of this facility is said to be for calling the emergency services from remote locations without cellphone service.  Presumably it would also work in an urban area where cellphone service was unavailable due to a power failure.

I do wonder how this service would work if every smartphone user is trying to use it at the same time (as they might be in an emergency situation in an urban area)

If the service is constrained to calls to emergency services that might help keep the demand manageable. 

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6 hours ago, adam2 said:

One of the latest smartphones has limited satellite connectivity, limited to text messages. The purpose of this facility is said to be for calling the emergency services from remote locations without cellphone service.  Presumably it would also work in an urban area where cellphone service was unavailable due to a power failure.

Sort of.

Under 'normal' use it could easily take many minutes to send that single 120-character text message.

It's intended for use in wilderness areas where you're the only one trying to send a text within ten miles, and a half hour delay is better than no message at all.

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1 hour ago, Stuart91 said:

I do wonder how this service would work if every smartphone user is trying to use it at the same time (as they might be in an emergency situation in an urban area)

If the service is constrained to calls to emergency services that might help keep the demand manageable. 

No voice calls are allowed. Text messages only. I would expect that the emergency services would receive most of the text messages, and that even in the absence of much detail, that the volume of texts would make it clear that something serious was wrong.

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48 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Sort of.

Under 'normal' use it could easily take many minutes to send that single 120-character text message.

It's intended for use in wilderness areas where you're the only one trying to send a text within ten miles, and a half hour delay is better than no message at all.

Yes, can be slow but as above a lot better than nothing. Thinking here of a remote rural pub, village hall, or other small venue, and fire or sudden illness occurs. A slow text message by satellite is probably quicker than driving to seek help.

A large urban venue should firstly have an Inmarsat phone, and secondly should plan on sending runners to the nearest fire station or police station.

 

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On 4/8/2022 at 9:21 AM, Dave m said:

BT have apparently put a hold on the process nationally due to issues discovered in the past 12 months.

A girlfriend lived in an old stable and we would frequently go out on an unscheduled cinema visit because her electric went down. Fortunately her mobile worked mostly

BT contractors have been pulling a lot, and I mean a lot, of cable down here recently and I wonder of this is connected. 

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14 hours ago, adam2 said:

. A slow text message by satellite is probably quicker than driving to seek help.

A large urban venue should firstly have an Inmarsat phone, and secondly should plan on sending runners to the nearest fire station or police station.

 

SMS text services are not an instant delivery, cross network can have long delays or even non-delivery.  Having at one time dealt with international roaming on Mobile networks, the ways SMS text sending could fail are numerous. And where would you direct your text to, to ensure it got a response?

Given that local 24/7 manned Police Stations are becoming rare items, you are dependent on the infra-structure at these stations providing a "running call" phone to control.

 

 

 

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