Omnipresent use of 911 has been arguably the most impactful killer app since cell phones first emerged over 40 years ago. It has saved countless lives. In the days of not having a landline this is completely unacceptable.

To have issues utilizing 911 from a cellular device in 2023 is exactly the kind of thing regulators should make painful for device manufacturers who can’t even get this right.

What’s even more puzzling is the brand and reputational damage when stories emerge in the press of people dying because their $500 (or more) device couldn’t do something a free phone without a SIM card can do.

You’d think they’d take this seriously if for no other reason other than self interest.

How's that boot taste?

Contacting emergency services is the one thing a phone must not fail at.

We mandated legacy telecos to maintain switching offices with a weeks worth of battery power so landlines could work in a natural disaster.

Google is a trillion dollar company if you want to get their attention you have to effect them on the order of millions of dollars.

I own one, and reading this I most definitely want a refund. It is utter bolox. Sure, every once in a while your car brakes fail, but that's not really the point of the car, is it? It's made to go forward! Anyways, we will get if fixed eventually. Do you like our newest, just released paint colors?

We recall baby products after they kill just a few babies. Why not phones that can’t call 911? It’s just as likely to kill people.

Being able to call 911 is an essential part of a phone. To the point that Apple (and I'm assuming Google) both allow calling emergency services while the phone is locked.

For a mild inconvenience that would be disproportionate, but this could be a matter of life or death here.

Disproportionate? Google must be worth what, a trillion dollars by now? And they can't get emergency service dialing working worldwide? There's clearly not enough legal liability to get them to do what society expects them to be doing. People are going to fucking die because of their negligence. Literally every minute is precious when someone is having a heart attack, we don't have time to fuck around with Google bullshit. Society should start calculating that damage and making Google pay all of it multiplied by 10.

What kind of response would be appropriate then for getting them to take this issue seriously?

Some people love so much they dismiss critical issues? Apple got fined for extending the life of old phones without notifying the users, where do you think this issue sits in relation?

This is a life or death matter and should be treated as such.

These are penalties carriers face if 911 doesn’t work.

That tends to happen when the party to be penalized shows how much it doesn't give a shit until it starts to hemorrhage money, because fines are just a cost of doing business. So let the blood flow.

This isn't disproportionate. This should be a baseline requirement for selling a phone.