Will Your Cell Phone Reach 911 in an Emergency?

If you're one of the millions of cell phone users who count on their wireless phone for emergency 911 calling........

You power want to think again.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that your 911 call wish be routed to an emergency call center. More less, the emergency dispatcher wish have the ability to pinpoint the call's location.

Why?

Part of the problem is lack of service. Often, in more rural areas, your cell phone has fewer towers accessible to obtain reception. And, many a of those towers are designed for analog calls - not digital.

But, since the FCC makes not require it, fewer carriers offer analog service -- or the ability to connect to it.

Not surprising, since more of the carriers' revenue is dependant on features accessible only on digital networks.

Another problem?

There is no uniform Ehanced 911 system (E911) for wireless carriers. The FCC neglected to force the carriers to adapt their E911 systems to a single technology.

Because of this, there are now two incompatable E911 systems in the works.

Nextel, Sprint and Verizon each have cell phones accessible that use the Worldwide Positioning System (GPS) to find a caller's location. Patch Cingular and T-Mobile bank on a triangulation system.

Unfortunately, some E911 systems have their flaws. The GPS system necessarily a minimum of three satalites to be able to "read" the handset's location. Accuracy can be hampered by heavy vegetation, mountains or tall buildings.

The triangulation system as well has its shortcomings, because it relies on the strength and temporal order of cell towers to determine a location. It, too, requires multiple towers for accuracy. This becomes more difficult in rural areas wherever towers are scarce.

To compound the problem, Emergency Call Centers are not accoutered with the technology necessary to field E911 calls. Most smaller centers lack the funding for the sophisticated equiptment, patch others lack the noesis on how to integrate it to their existing system.

According to a 2004 article in the San Diego Union Tribune, only just about 12% of the country's 911 centers had the ability to pinpoint the location of wireless phone users emergency calls.

Which cell phone is best?

Dual band, or tri-band phones, allow some analog and digital frequencies. If a 911 call makes not connect in a digital mode, the alternate analog network is available.

The FCC as well requires that any carrier offering multi-frequency phones must allow the 911 call to cast to another service, if the call can not be completed on their own network.

Currently, only Cingular and Verizon offer dual or tri-bands for some their service and handsets. Sprint PCS and T-Mobile wireless phones operate on a digital band, but allow analog roaming.

Nextel uses its own iDEN network, which has limited roaming ability.

About The Author

Sandra Landwehr is the webmaster of www.the-cell-phone-advisor.com, a wireless user site offering REAL HELP in finding your better cellular phone service, and free cell phone offer.

This article was denote on Oct 29, 2005