Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Brown County, S.D., to Get Technology to Locate Cell Phone Calls Source: American News (Aberdeen, S.D.)

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 23:46:23 -0500

Brown County, S.D., to Get Technology to Locate Cell Phone Calls Source:
American News (Aberdeen, S.D.)
Publication date: 2004-02-15
Arrival time: 2004-02-16

Feb. 15--Cell phones deliver one-third of all calls to the Brown County
Communications Center. But if a caller is an accident victim, dispatchers may
get little useful information from the person as they attempt to send emergency
aid.
"You get excited and you don't know where you're at," said Brown County Sheriff
Mark Milbrandt. "It's human nature." People are overly anxious after being in a
car wreck, involved in a fire or tragedy, he said.

But within six months dispatchers may not need to solely rely on callers, said
Drew Bickford, director of Brown County's Communications Center.  Bickford has
requested that the area's only cell phone providers Verizon Wireless and Western
Wireless -- the parent company of Cellular One -- upgrade their technology in
Brown County to allow dispatchers to automatically receive a call's location.

"It would be a tremendous thing for us," said Milbrandt, whose department covers
1,728 square miles.
In 1996 the federal government told wireless carriers to install locator
technology, which can find callers within 100 yards.
Cellular phone companies can either use a global positioning device in 95
percent of their phones by Dec. 31, 2005, or they can install technology that
automatically locates a caller based on the distance and direction from the
phone to the tower transmitting the call.
The tower service in South Dakota must be requested by each individual county.
Bickford said he sent letters to Western Wireless and Verizon Wireless on Feb.
3.

Spokespeople for the companies said that upon request they have six months to
upgrade the towers. Both wireless providers indicated they are expecting the
paperwork shortly. They are also optimistic that the services will be upgraded
within the time allowed.
"We have never failed to meet a deadline once we receive a request," said Karen
Smith, Great Plains spokeswoman for Verizon.
Cellular One phones purchased within the last year should have Global
Positioning Satellite technology, said Steve Kam, spokesman for Western
Wireless.

Verizon Wireless phones purchased after December 2003 should have GPS, Smith
said.
The two companies expect to meet the government's requirement that they have GPS
technology in 95 percent of cell phones.
The GPS technology pinpoints a caller's location. However if a phone does not
have the device, dispatchers will still be able to track a call after the
cellular phone towers are upgraded.

The locator technology is the final phase of a federal guideline to update
emergency cell phone services.
Currently all home and business phones provide dispatchers with a phone number
and address.
All cell phones can call 911. Western Wireless phones can also tell dispatchers
a caller's phone number and carrier name.
A request was not sent to Verizon Wireless for the enhanced service.

Bickford said that Brown County is about six months behind in the project
because of the time lapse between his predecessor's resignation and his hiring.

The completion of the final phase will ensure that emergency dispatch can track
all cell phone carriers and receive a phone number for the caller, he said.

Brown County is not alone in its task to update the technology. The state
association of county commissioners is surveying call centers across South
Dakota to determine where they stand with 911 services.
Brown, Minnehaha, Moody, Davison, Pennington, Meade and Lawrence counties have
at least one wireless carrier providing dispatchers with a caller's phone number
and wireless carrier name, said Gordon Vanauken, 911 project manager for the
association.
Vanauken said the group will develop a plan to help counties reach the final
phase. He said finding a funding source could delay updating rural call centers.
He said there is no deadline on when the last phase might be completed
statewide.
Bickford said Brown County's recently relocated call center needs no more than a
slight upgrade in software to receive a cell phone's location. He said the
program is vital in a county with miles of rural roads.

A 75-cent monthly surcharge is currently billed for all home, business and cell
phones to have the 911 call service. Bickford said the funds are distributed to
the county, which uses the money for the call center's budget.

South Dakota sets a cap at 75 cents, so there will be no added fees with the new
locator service, he said.
Milbrandt sees the technology as being "100 percent beneficial."

In the past, sheriff's offices and dispatchers have had to rely on a caller's
directions. Sometimes people could only relay the description of a landmark.

The need for wireless tracking hit the area in 1997 when Karen Nelson, of
Webster was stranded in her pickup truck for nearly 40 hours before she was
rescued.

The Day County's sheriff tried to reach her on a cell phone every 30 minutes,
attempting to trace her phone signal with the aid of Nortel Wireless in Dallas.

Eventually an airplane loaded with frequency monitoring equipment swept over the
area and picked up her phone's signal and she was rescued.

Authorities believe the new locator technology will reduce response time,
keeping motorists like Nelson out of the cold.
"Even though it's a small fraction of the calls that come in, it's gonna save
lives," Bickford said of cell phone tracking.

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=47186434&ID=cnniw&scategory=Telecommunications%3AWireless&

-- 
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     [email-masked]

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