999 Calls not transversing Sure Signal

[Geoffers]

A friend of mine (whom I've permanently lent my VSS to) had reason to test the 999 feature of aforementioned VSS recently, but oddly the femtocell reject these calls. A summary of the incident as he relayed to me is this:

He made sure that his normal [non-emergency] calls were using the femtocell, but when he dialled 999, it took ages for the call to be established, and he advised that he observed the following: -

•             before making the call, he checked the handset to ensure that it had a good 3G signal from the femtocell – which it did;

•             He then dialled 999, and the handset displayed ‘Calling Emergency Call’;

•             it did so for about 4-5 seconds, but without any sign of the femtocell showing that a call was in progress;

•             then, the signal strength indicator on the handset changed from a strong 3G signal to no signal at all;

•             next, the handset showed a poor signal – similar to the ‘real’ vodafone signal in his area;

•             after that, within a few seconds, his call was successful, and the EO (Emergency Operator answered with: “Emergency, which service?”.

Therefore, it looked like his 999 test calls (17:09, 17:20 and 17:28) attempted to use the femtocell, but after failing, or being rejected, the handset then used the ‘real’ vodafone mobile signal. Whilst registering the VSS you have to enter your postcode for the very reason of the VSS being used to make a 112/999 call, so why did these calls not transverse the VSS and instead use the ‘real’ vodafone signal?

[AnnS]

Hello Geoffers

999 calls do not go through the network the normal way, you can even make a 999 call without a SIM card or using a cancelled SIM.  999 calls are also not shown on your bill but are logged by the Police.

[Geoffers]

Thanks for the response, but I don’t believe you’re answered by question, nor what you have said is correct. Firstly, 999/112 aren’t answered by the Police, they are answered by one of the three CHAs in the UK (BT, Cable & Wireless or Level 3 Communications), both myself and my colleague work for one of the three, I was even an Emergency Operator many years ago, hence why we’re involved in the above testing now, more info about CHAs can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999_(emergency_telephone_number)

Secondly, you say that a sim-less mobile can make calls this again isn’t correct, as described here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999_(emergency_telephone_number)

and here

http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Teaching-resources/Quick-activities/999

So to rephrase my question: Why when you have to register the postcode of the VSS for the explicit use of pinpointing your location during a 999 call, and ‘normal’ calls, both pre and post the 999 call transverse the VSS all OK, did the 999 call not, and chose (after a delay) to use the standard vodafone network.

[Retired-Dave]

Hi Geoffers,

Thanks to AnnS for looking to offer some assistance there for you.

We've not heard of this happening before, so we'll need to look a little closer to see what's happening.

Can you get the registered Sure Signal owner - whichever one of you it may now be - to confirm the following information for me?

 - The Sure Signal serial number

 - The router make and model

 - The ISP

If possible, can you also try the Sure Signal on an alternate connection and see if the call is affected there as well? This will just help to pin down the cause of the issue.

Dave

[Geoffers]

Good Evening Dave,

- The Sure Signal Serial Number: 21229607946

- The router make and model: Netgear DG834GT

- The ISP: Sky Broadband Unlimited

The VSS hasn't been tried on alternative connection as yet, there's two possible options; another SKY connection, or a Virgin Media connection, which would you prefer be used?

Geoff.

[Retired-Lee]

Hi Geoffers,

You could try it on any of the two but the Virgin one would be preferential as it's a different ISP

Cheers,

LeeH

[Geoffers]

Good Evening LeeH,

Unfortunately the Virgin Media connection is no longer available as they too have now migrated to Sky. However after a discussion with my colleague earlier, we don’t feel the ISP should make a difference as the IPSEC tunnel was firmly established at the time. Calls both pre and post the 999 calls transversed the VSS all OK, and the 999 calls themselves appeared to try to transverse the VSS however were rejected to use the ‘normal’ vodafone network.

Since I’ve provided the VSS serial, wouldn’t a more prudent course of action be to give a date and time for us to perform further test call/calls whilst you run a signalling trace on the VSS?

Geoff.

[Retired-Lee]

Hi Geoffers,

I've had word back from the support teams.

This is a safety feature of the VSS.

The Sure Signal is set up so your phone will always try to use the standard Vodafone Network to make a 999 call before trying to use the Sure Signal. This is because some customers may not have updated their postcode prior to making the call, so could transmit incorrect postcode information.

The Vodafone network will always give an accurate position of the call. If the phone cannot find any Vodafone signal, it will place the 999 call over the Sure Signal.

Thanks,

LeeH

[Geoffers]

Thanks for the response LeeH, now knowing what you're told us we're going to try to force a call over the VSS by ensuring the handset isn't receiveing any MNOs signal other than the VSS' 3G one. I'll update the thread with the outcome in a week or two...