Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

actionnewsjax.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 265 posts

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#61

Post by bestnameever »

izacus wrote: post #44
edent wrote: post #12

When I used to work for a large mobile network, we would spend ages testing the firmware of new devices. Even giants (at the time) like Nokia would release phones which couldn't dial the emergency services, or put out more than the legal limit of radiation, or were in other ways defective. We'd test, send a report back, wait a few weeks, get a new firmware, test again, repeat until everything worked. It took months.…

Well, the fact that big American mobile operators outright blocked or delayed updates for months did not go unnoticed. Testing is one thing, but in my first hand experience, many carriers used this "testing" as a convenient way to block phone updates without preloaded bloatware preferring their services or apps they were paid to put on the phones.

> many carriers used this "testing" as a convenient way to block phone updates without preloaded bloatware preferring their services or apps they were paid to put on the phones.

How were you involved with the update process to know this?

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#62

Post by RicoElectrico »

edent wrote: post #12

When I used to work for a large mobile network, we would spend ages testing the firmware of new devices. Even giants (at the time) like Nokia would release phones which couldn't dial the emergency services, or put out more than the legal limit of radiation, or were in other ways defective. We'd test, send a report back, wait a few weeks, get a new firmware, test again, repeat until everything worked. It took months.…

Such things should be under the prerogative of the national telecom regulator body to be checked in the type approval procedure. After all, before EU took the care of this, telecom equipment in European countries had homologation marks of the local FCC equivalents.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#63

Post by aaomidi »

bestnameever wrote: post #61
izacus wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the fact that big American mobile operators outright blocked or delayed updates for months did not go unnoticed. Testing is one thing, but in my first hand experience, many carriers used this "testing" as a convenient way to block phone updates without preloaded bloatware preferring their services or apps they were paid to put on the phones.

> many carriers used this "testing" as a convenient way to block phone updates without preloaded bloatware preferring their services or apps they were paid to put on the phones. How were you involved with the update process to know this?

We saw the bloat as the end user.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#64

Post by mort96 »

edent wrote: post #12

When I used to work for a large mobile network, we would spend ages testing the firmware of new devices. Even giants (at the time) like Nokia would release phones which couldn't dial the emergency services, or put out more than the legal limit of radiation, or were in other ways defective. We'd test, send a report back, wait a few weeks, get a new firmware, test again, repeat until everything worked. It took months.…

It's not like months-long delays to get security updates isn't also incredibly dangerous.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#65

Post by jakub_g »

mahathu wrote: post #16

> “So this is what happens on my brand new $1,000 Google phone when I try to call 911.” How old is this story? The news report is from 2 days ago, but surely in 2022 the person filming the TikTok video wouldn't call a Pixel 6 a "brand new $1,000 Google phone"?

It's not $1000 anymore but you can still buy "brand new" Pixel 6 in retail stores in EU.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#66

Post by progval »

edent wrote: post #12

When I used to work for a large mobile network, we would spend ages testing the firmware of new devices. Even giants (at the time) like Nokia would release phones which couldn't dial the emergency services, or put out more than the legal limit of radiation, or were in other ways defective. We'd test, send a report back, wait a few weeks, get a new firmware, test again, repeat until everything worked. It took months.…

> customers couldn't stand the delays associated with testing. They'd see a new firmware had been released and complained

Why do customers care about the firmware version?

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#68

Post by zinekeller »

ddalex wrote: post #31
crooked-v wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a network problem. It's a side effect of that Android version letting apps register to take over calling functions (for, e.g., VOIP purposes), when then makes emergency calls fail if any of the apps that have registered that functionality don't handle it properly.

Do you mean users install apps that are buggy, and this is somehow Androids fault? At the same time, if Android wouldn't allow VoIP apps, it would be somehow at fault again ?

Most custom versions of Android (in this context, non-Pixel phones) have actually hardcoded that all emergency calls (especially in lock screens) be routed into a different, lightweight, for-emergency-only dialer. Google has known about this but didn't do anything to also provide a hardcoded override.

Edit: and apparently recent Android versions, but I can't confirm that.

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#69

Post by zinekeller »

throwaway290 wrote: post #38
alpaca128 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing about your explanation refutes that this is a very scary issue. Third-party apps or not, a phone that can't call emergency services in every situation other than empty battery should be treated by the government like food that can potentially poison people.

you posit "911 doesn't ring sometimes" ∈ "very scary issue with a phone", that's correct title implies "911 doesn't ring sometimes" ∈ "very scary issue dialing 911", that is incorrect frankly "doesn't ring" is probably the most routine issue that can happen when dialing a number the comment you respond to responds to article title and posits "911 doesn't ring sometimes" ∉ "very scary issue dialing 911"

"911 doesn't ring sometimes" in this context means that there's good signal and can call non-emergency numbers using ordinary phone networks, but for some reason can't handle emergency calls correctly (and yes, you could call the GSM-wise non-emergency but legally-wise long emergency number for your area normally, it's just you're more likely to not know it in an actual emergency). That's not just "scary", it's a life-threatening defect similar to a faulty airbag (where you don't need it now but it must work in an emergency).

Re: Issue dialing 911 on Google Pixel 6 cell phones

#70

Post by paganel »

crooked-v wrote: post #30

This article, dating back to January, lays it out pretty clearly: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/google-fixes-nightma... > If you're logged out, launching Microsoft Teams 10 times will result in 10 duplicate PhoneAccounts from Teams clogging your phone. Teams shouldn't do this, and Microsoft's update stopped Teams from doing this, but a bunch of duplicate PhoneAccounts also shouldn't be enough to bring Andro…

If I get this right, we have a $1+ trillion company not being able to build a basic functionality into their phones? (like "phone calls don't work" and the whole calling 911 issue). And, apparently, that was happening because of a shitty app built by another $1+ trillion company? In terms of innovation the US tech scene is toast with these dinosaurs.
Post reply on HN