Emergency calls are serviced from a data communications device (104) via a
wide area data network (102), for example, the Internet. A user of the
communications device registers for emergency call service on an emergency
call site that is associated with the wide area data network (200). An
operator is associated with the emergency call site for handling emergency
calls. When required, the user initiates an emergency call from the
communications device (202). Then, the user provides information about the
emergency to the operator through a real-time online chat (210). The
operator performs a database query to determine emergency numbers for
responding to the emergency based on the information received from the
user (212). After selecting the appropriate emergency number, the operator
connects the call to a local authority who is associated with the selected
emergency number via the public telephone network (216).
