A test of 911 calls reveals a reason for missed connections [telecom]

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By Peter DeMarco

If an Uber driver can precisely find you in a crowded downtown using the electronic signal from your cellphone, shouldn't a 911 operator be able to find you just as quickly in an emergency?

Yet, the 911 system failed my wife, Laura Levis, in 2016 when she collapsed from an asthma attack on a bench outside the emergency room of CHA Somerville Hospital. Although she told operators her location, the 911 system erroneously put her phone hundreds of feet away. By the time firefighters finally found her 10 minutes later, as I wrote last fall, she had stopped breathing and never regained consciousness.