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If it’s a good idea it should be mandatory for everybody, right?

Take location services for VoIP phones, GPS devices, SMS emergency and broadcast text capabilities, all pretty good things. But just because they’re good, should they be required, or should people have the choice whether or not they want them installed on their own personal equipment?

According to a recent report in the industry journal The National Business Review, New Zealand’s Ministry of Economic Development, as befits a government bureaucracy, thinks they should be required across the board. The MED has released a discussion paper contending that power and location services for VoIP devices should be mandatory, as well as GPS technology in new mobile phones, SMS emergency and broadcast text services.

Of course the argument centers around the fact that it’s a good idea, for safety’s sake, for emergency responders to be able to pinpoint somebody’s location if they call for help -- 111 here in Aotearoa -- and can’t speak. Landlines can do that, but VoIP can’t without special apps.

Cell triangulation and GPS would provide that, so instead of leaving it up to individuals to decide if they want to pay extra for that, the government is leaning towards making the decision for everybody and simply requiring it on all mobile VoIP phones.

To their credit the government paper acknowledges the fact that yes, GPS is pricey, and would raise the cost of mobile phones, and that it really doesn’t work all that well in buildings. But hey, this is New Zealand, where the emergency calls are likely to come from glacier ravines, an overturned fishing boat or deep in the bush.

And the paper also admits that yes, it does raise the spectre of government surveillance, the capacity for which would be greatly increased with such a feature. Paul Brislen, CEO of the advocacy group Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand, remarked that yes, there are “benefits to both sides” of the proposal to require GPS or triangulation capabilities on all cell phones, noting that the issue of international VoIP providers complicated the issue, since few of them would change their policies simply to comply with New Zealand law.

It’s more than likely that the government will, in fact, end up requiring location technology on all new cell phones, whether individuals consider it worth the expense or not.