Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 911 now able to locate most cellular calls

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2003 04:20:55 -0400

911 now able to locate most cellular calls
By Carter Thompson
The Daily News
Published August 04, 2003

Emergency communications officials say they have made great strides in fixing an
expanding Achilles’ heel in the 911 system: the inability to trace calls made from
cellular phones. A benefit of 911 has been that dispatchers could pinpoint the
origin of a call made from a land line.  That allowed emergency personnel to find
people who, for instance, did not know or were suffering a medical emergency that
prevented them from relaying their address to dispatchers. Dispatchers only
recently have begun to get the same information on cell phone calls.

Bobby Wright, executive director of the Galveston County Emergency Communication
District, said the system for locating most cell phone calls made here has been
working reliably for 1½ months. Galveston County is one of only about six counties
in Texas to implement such a system, Wright said.

He estimated 35 percent to 40 percent of calls to 911 now come from cell phones,
and the number was increasing every day. “They use to be just in cars,” Wright
said. “Now people are using cell phones to make calls wherever they are.”
The system depends on the participation of the six cellular providers that operate
here. The providers actually pinpoint the locations and relay that information to
dispatchers. The district pays the companies about $10,000 a month for the
service, he said.

The first phase entailed allowing dispatchers to see the phone numbers of the cell
phones that were calling in emergencies. The second phase was to track the calls.
The first provider signed on last year, the sixth and final came on board in March
and the companies and the district spent months work-ing bugs, which included a
false trace to Illinois, from the system, Wright said. How they figure the
location depends on the company.  Cingular, AT&T and T-Mobile compute the location
by the time it takes the signal of the cell phone calling 911 to reach different
towers.

Nextel, Verizon and Sprint use a system that depends on the cell phones containing
a global positioning system chip. Phone makers have only recently begun installing
the chips, so 911 calls made from some older cell phones cannot be located
automatically.

“There’s nothing we can do to fix that,” Wright said.  “It has to do with the
technology of the provider.” The companies have assured the district that the
number of these “legacy phones” without GPS chips will diminish rapidly as
features like cameras, color screens and games entice people to buy new phones.

The previous inability to locate cell phone calls has, across the country,
sometimes had tragic consequences. In May, Kingsville Police had received a 911
call from the back of a trailer in which 19 illegal aliens were later found dead
at a truck stop near Victoria. Police had been unable to locate the caller.

In 2000, authorities in Galveston were unable to locate a man pinned by a
dumbwaiter in his home. He called 911 from his cell phone but dispatchers were
unable to understand him as he tried to tell his location. After being missed at
work, he was found dead three days later.

Wright said it’s unclear whether the cellular tracking system would have allowed
authorities to find the man before he died.
“There’s a possibility that he might have been found,” he said. “There’s a
possibility he might have been saved. We want to at least give the person the
chance.”

The technology also could bring reckoning to people who have made false calls to
911 on cell phones. “Now we have the opportunity to surprise them, Wright said.

http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=12100

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From: Rick Parrish <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2003 03:38:39 -0500

[email-masked] wrote:

>The providers actually pinpoint the locations and relay that information to dispatchers. The district pays the companies about $10,000 a month for the service, he said.
>  
>
Yikes! And I thought the E911 fees tacked on to our cell phone bills 
already paid for this.

-rick

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2003 04:56:43 -0400

That's the confusing thing..........

Carriers are allowed to tack on additional fees with little or no explanation to the consumer as demonstrated in the lawsuit against Nextel & Sprint..

All the carriers must say is "Federally Mandated blah, blah, blah" and people pay it.
Just like the fees on you land line bill, I like the "$1.00 charged on behalf of  Hokie County 911" did you know you can challenge this? The phone company & the county will
remove rather than litigate it. They just hope you don't tell your friends.
Technically I guess this disallows you from 911 service. The attorney who had it remove still has working 911 service.

E-911 is more of a mess. Have you looked at the small number of PSAPs  the are E-911 Phase II capable? You would be surprised. Some Counties are taking E-911 funds to pay
other bills. It seems there is little regulation over this. Recently several bills were introduced to curb this activity, but meanwhile it's the E-911 piggy bank!

---

From: "Todd Ellis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 06:59:21 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 4:57 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: [NEXTEL-1] 911 now able to locate most cellular calls

Carriers are allowed to tack on additional fees with little or no
explanation to the consumer as demonstrated in the lawsuit against Nextel &
Sprint..

All the carriers must say is "Federally Mandated blah, blah, blah" and
people pay it.
Just like the fees on you land line bill, I like the "$1.00 charged on
behalf of  Hokie County 911" did you know you can challenge this? The phone
company & the county will
remove rather than litigate it. They just hope you don't tell your friends.
Technically I guess this disallows you from 911 service. The attorney who
had it remove still has working 911 service.

E-911 is more of a mess. Have you looked at the small number of PSAPs  the
are E-911 Phase II capable? You would be surprised. Some Counties are taking
E-911 funds to pay
other bills. It seems there is little regulation over this. Recently several
bills were introduced to curb this activity, but meanwhile it's the E-911
piggy bank!

Here's the real deal.  Just because the county is getting their 911 fees
doesn't mean it is going towards reading your cellphone number into the PSAP
E911 system.  One municipality I worked with used their 911 fee account to
purchase a snazzy 800 MHz Smartnet II system.

Todd Ellis

Raleigh, NC