Will Your Cell Phone Reach 911 In An Emergency?
By Sandra Landwehr, Sat Dec 10th

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

You might want to think again.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that your 911 call will berouted to an emergency call center. Much less, the emergencydispatcher will have the ability to pinpoint the call's location.

Why?

Part of the problem is lack of service. Often, in more ruralareas, your cell phone has fewer towers available to receivereception. And, many of those towers are designed for analogcalls - not digital.

But, since the FCC does not require it, fewer carriers offeranalog service -- or the ability to connect to it.

Not surprising, since much of the carriers' revenue is dependanton features available only on digital networks.

Another problem?

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

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

Nextel, Sprint and Verizon each have cell phones available that use the GlobalPositioning System (GPS) to find a caller's location. While Cingular and T-Mobile rely on a triangulation system.

Unfortunately, both E911 systems have their flaws. The GPSsystem needs a minimum of three

satalites to be able to "read"the handset's location. Accuracy can be hampered by heavyvegetation, mountains or tall buildings.

The triangulation system also has its shortcomings, because itrelies on the strength and timing of cell towers to determine alocation. It, too, requires multiple towers for accuracy. Thisbecomes more difficult in rural areas where towers are scarce.

To compound the problem, Emergency Call Centers are not equiptwith the technology needed to field E911 calls. Most smallercenters lack the funding for the sophisticated equiptment, whileothers lack the knowledge on how to integrate it to theirexisting system.

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

Which cell phone is best?

Dual band, or tri-band phones, allow both analog anddigital frequencies. If a 911 call does not connect in a digitalmode, the alternate analog network is available.

The FCC also requires that any carrier offering multi-frequencyphones must allow the 911 call to roam to another service, ifthe call can not be completed on their own network.

Currently, only Cingular and Verizon offer dual or tri-bands forboth their service and handsets. Sprint PCS and T-Mobilewireless phones operate on a digital band, but allow analogroaming.

Nextel uses its own iDEN network, which has limited roamingability.

About the author:Sandra Landwehr is the webmaster of www.the-cell-phone-advisor.com, a site which offers REAL HELP in finding your cellphone service and free cell phone offer.