Canadian emergency agencies are urging people to consider the risks of using Internet phone services following the death of an 18-month-old boy in Calgary.

Sylvia Luck called 911 on Tuesday night using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone -- which routes calls through the Internet -- after her nephew, Elijah, appeared to be in medical distress, his left hand and leg quivering. An ambulance arrived more than 30 minutes later, and only after a neighbour called 911 from a land line.

Alison George, a spokeswoman for Comwave Telecom Inc., the VoIP provider for the Luck family, said its call centre heeded Ms. Luck's plea and sent an ambulance to the address on file. Unfortunately, it was the family's former address in suburban Toronto.

Internet-based phone services do not relay the caller's location. When a land line is used, emergency services can see the person's name, address and phone number.

Staff Sergeant Peter Glen, who manages the communications centre at the London Police Service in Ontario, believes the current VoIP phone system is unsafe.

"It might be OK if you're changing your newspaper subscription and it gets sent to your neighbours instead of your place.... It's not [OK] when it is life and death."

For years, law-enforcement agencies have tried to alert the public about the limitations of VoIP in emergencies; they warned that VoIP connections are vulnerable to power outages and 911 calls are first routed to call centres, which then connect them to local 911 dispatch centres.

It is the responsibility of the VoIP customer to ensure his address is up-to-date.

Otherwise, the 911 caller must tell the operator his location.

This system has been in place for a few years and has been reliable, said John Lange, president of the Canadian Association of VoIP Providers.

"Response is of utmost importance," said Karen Fry, deputy fire chief for B.C.'s Surrey Fire Department. "For cardiac arrest, the goal is to arrive on scene in six minutes. Fires escalate; they double in size every 30 or 60 seconds. The goal for fire departments is to arrive on scene from the time the fire is recognized within eight minutes."

In 2005, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled that Voice-over-Internet-Protocol firms must provide at least basic 911 services to their customers. Companies must inform customers about the limitations of its 911 services when users subscribe to the service, and once a year thereafter.

But Paul Godin, the regulatory agency's director general of competition implementation, costing and tariffs, said it is a temporary solution.

"Most VoIP IP Telephony ads usually have a disclaimer about their connectivity to 911. That needs to be asked about and explored. Nobody thinks they need to call 911 until they have to," said Curtis Brochu, manager of public safety communications for Calgary. "When you're dialing 911, it's not the time to be asking where I get connected."

"If you dial 911 with the VoIP, if you're choking or you're in a fire and you can't answer, that is not of great help. We're working to try to come up with a technology and service to provide instant location."