Subject: [NEXTEL-1] EMERGENCY SERVICES 911 dialing in to wireless technology

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 18:51:16 -0400

EMERGENCY SERVICES 911 dialing in to wireless technology

CenCom soon might be able to track
cell phone calls.

Angela D. Smith
Sun Staff

April 21, 2003
Imagine being hurt in a remote place,
maybe hiking on Green Mountain.

It's dark.

You're lost.

But you have your cell phone and,
amazingly, you have reception.

Relieved?

Perhaps not, because tracking a cell
phone user isn't easy. And unless you
can tell a dispatcher where you are,
help could take hours to find you.

CenCom, the county's emergency
communications department, may
improve that scenario in the next few
years.

By mid-summer, it will have completed
the first step in upgrades to perhaps
accept locator technology: access to cell
phone numbers.

In response to a growing number of cell
phone users, the FCC in 1996 adopted
rules requiring wireless service
providers to help locate callers.

Requirements for the enhanced 911
system was divided into two phases.

Phase I required wireless providers to
make cell phone numbers and the cell
site or base receiving the call available
to emergency dispatch centers within
six months of asking.

CenCom's board of directors approved
upgrades in November and notified
Kitsap County's seven primary service
providers in January. Nextel wireless phone numbers are currently
available to dispatchers.

The approximately $385,000 upgrade was funded with an
increase in wireless tax, making it even with the 50 cents per
month charged to land-based phones.

"Before, there was no way to call that number back to see if
something's wrong," said Dave Magnenat, deputy director of
Kitsap County 911.

About 40 percent, or 95,000, of the approximately 235,000 calls
CenCom receives each year are from cell phones.

About 30 percent of cell phone calls, or about 30,000 per year, are
made in error, Magnenat said.

Without a phone number, the dispatcher is unable to simply hang
up and call back to alert or help the user and must stay on the
line to determine if there's a problem.

"We hear people singing to the radio, talking to friends,"
Magnenat said. "It takes a lot of time to process those kinds of
things."

If there is a problem and the caller is unable to speak, even with
phase I implemented, the dispatcher can only locate a person to
the nearest cell tower, which could be miles away.

That's where the locator technology required in the second phase
of FCC rules come in.

Wireless providers will be required to make available technology
to locate a caller within 100 feet by Dec. 31, 2005.

Companies likely will do so by one of two methods.

Handsets or replacement batteries for them could utilize satellite
data with Global Positioning System chips.

Some carriers may choose to improve their ability to triangulate,
measuring the strength and timing of a caller's signal from
different cell towers.

Magnenat said officials are as yet unsure how much further
upgrades to be able to use the technology will cost.

"We're looking at significant changes in the system," Magnenat
said.

Officials are applying for grants as they try to understand whether
the county, state or providers will shoulder the cost.

Even when and if the technology becomes available to CenCom,
callers must be able to provide dispatchers with your name,
wireless phone number with area code, location and nature of the
emergency and whether police and fire assistance is needed.

Wireless phone users are also asked to avoid pre-programming
911, lock the key pad and place the phone where the phone pad
will not be bumped.

http://www.thesunlink.com/redesign/2003-04-21/local/128833.shtml

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