Subject: [NEXTEL-1] York County, Va. Tests E911 Wireless Location Technology

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 17:17:30 -0500

York County, Va. Tests E911 Wireless Location Technology

York County, Va. is testing technology that enables emergency dispatchers to
automatically receive location information to within 100 ft. to 300 ft. of cell
phones being used to dial 911. The service is currently available from Nextel,
Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL, and will soon be available from Sprint PCS. The
communications manager for York County's Department of Fire & Life Safety
expects to work next with Triton-SunCom on providing the service. Seven
carriers serve the York County area. The cost of equipping the dispatch centers
to receive the location information was paid for, in part, by a 75-cent surcharge
appearing on cell phone bills

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeing 911: York tests wireless system for
emergency calls

By Mathew Paust and Tina McCloud
Daily Press

Published February 5, 2003

YORK -- 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.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-44419sy0feb05.story

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/