Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 911 System Allows Cell Users to Connect with City Police in York, Va.

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 18:33:06 -0500

911 System Allows Cell Users to Connect with City Police in York, Va.

February 5, 2003 3:37am

Feb. 5--YORK, Va.--Can you see me now?

It's the visual counterpart of that Verizon Wireless ad where the guy with the cell phone
pops up in woods, back alleys and
mountaintops and keeps asking someone on the other end of his phone, "Can you hear me
now?"

The "see me" version is not an ad, but rather a test of York County's cutting-edge
technology for handling emergency calls from
wireless phones.

York was chosen as a pilot community to help lead emergency communications into the
wireless age.

"We're first in the state. We're first nationally," says Terry Hall, communications
manager for York's Department of Fire & Life
Safety.

"That software," Hall says, pointing at a computer bank in one of the county's three
emergency dispatch stations, "is serial
number one."

Hall, who also sits on the state board that's directing the upgrade of Virginia's public
emergency dispatch centers to
accommodate wireless calls, is regarded by his colleagues in Hampton Roads as "the guru."

The wireless project is a response to a federal mandate to get all service providers and
localities pinpointing 911 calls by
October 2005. A monthly surcharge of 75 cents on wireless phones is helping fund the
project.

Once York is up and running with all of its service providers, other Hampton Roads
localities, with Hall's guidance, will soon
follow. "We're the guinea pig," Hall says.

The first stage involves installing equipment to enable local wireless calls to go
directly to local emergency dispatchers. Calls
now go to the nearest State Police dispatcher, who forwards them to localities.

As more and more people began using wireless phones, State Police dispatchers were swamped
with emergency calls, many
of them from motorists reporting the same accident and not sure of where they were, said
Poquoson Police Chief Jack White.

Verizon calls in Poquoson now come directly to the Poquoson dispatcher, but the callers
still need to tell the dispatcher where
they are, White said.

As for York's "can you see me now" test: Carol Adams, York's emergency communications
supervisor, is standing outside the
Public Safety Building, calling E-911 on her cell phone.

Shift leader Tonie Ward takes Adams' call at her station in the dispatch room.

As Ward answers the call, one of her four computer screens lights up with multi-colored
information, telling her, among other
things, that the call is coming from a wireless phone. Moments later, a map of the county
government complex appears on
another screen.

A red dot erupts on the black-and-white map, right in front of the building entrance.

"That's her," says Ward, pointing at the dot. As Adams moves, another dot appears about an
inch from the first, then another
and another. Each dot represents the spot, give or take a few feet, where Adams was
standing when Ward punched the "re-bid"
button on her console to refresh the information.

This pinpoint accuracy would occur were she standing anywhere in York County, Hall
explains. Adams' phone service is Nextel;
the program would also work for Verizon and Alltel customers. It soon will work with
Sprint, and Triton-Suncom may be next,
Hall said.

When the remaining two wireless companies that serve York have likewise adapted their
technology, the county will be "fully
deployed," meaning that any 911 call in the county from one of the seven companies' phones
will tell the dispatcher precisely
where the caller is located provided, also, that the phones are equipped with global
positioning system microchips, he notes.

Verizon Wireless has adapted its equipment to give an approximate location of callers
using cell phones that don't have the
GPS chip. Using three towers to triangulate on the signal, Verizon can come within about
half a mile of the caller, Hall says.

Is the new process complicated? You bet, and Hall makes it clear he's uncomfortable trying
to explain it to a novice in less than
an hour. He's taking a PowerPoint demonstration to lawmakers today in Richmond.

The condensed account misses a lot of detail, Hall emphasizes, but here in essence is what
happened when Adams went
outside and called 911:

Her call went straight to the nearest Nextel tower, then traveled via underground phone
line to the Nextel database and
Verizon's two databases, in Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. Verizon gets involved in all
of the wireless 911 calls because it
handles York's land lines.

Verizon's data base then shot information along a land line to one of Ward's computers,
which passed it to a computer that
contains special software, then to a mapping data base, which pulled up a map of the
surrounding area and pinpointed Adams'
location.

The entire sequence took less than a second, Hall says. It took a little longer 10 seconds
to update her position each time
Ward hit the "re-bid" button.

Until all localities and service providers have upgraded their equipment to enable GPS
locating by dispatchers, Hall
recommends that folks calling 911 from wireless phones follow these three suggestions:

--Remain calm and stay on the line until the dispatcher tells you it's OK to hang up.

--Be familiar with your surroundings, and be prepared to give the dispatcher an address or
location.

--Know your cellular phone number and the name of your cellular provider.

--By Mathew Paust and Tina McCloud

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