Enhanced Wireless 9-1-1 Services
Wireless technology not only provides the freedom to connect with friends and family, it is a powerful tool for your personal safety and security. Every day, more than 224,000 Americans use their wireless phones to contact emergency services – saving lives, stopping crimes, and helping others in emergencies. For years, wireless companies have been working with federal, state and local government agencies and public safety officials to enhance the emergency capabilities wireless offers.Helping Hands
Every day, nearly 224,000 calls are made from wireless phones to 9-1-1 or other emergency services. That’s about 155 calls every minute, and 81 million calls per year to help people in need. But numbers don’t really tell the full story. Check out some true stories about everyday wireless users like you, who saved lives, stopped crimes, or helped out in emergencies.
Enhancing Wireless 9-1-1 Services
With every passing day, wireless technology offers more safety and security benefits, for us as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. That’s what “enhanced” 9-1-1 services are all about. For years, your wireless phone provided the ability to call for help in an emergency, but callers had to provide emergency responders with information about their location. Recently, wireless carriers introduced technologies that provide dispatches with specific location information for callers who dial 9-1-1 from their wireless phones. All these efforts help improve the reliability and effectiveness of wireless 9-1-1 services, enabling emergency responders to provide assistance much more quickly.
Wireless 9-1-1 Services were introduced in two phases.
Phase I. For several years now, most wireless services provided emergency responders with the 9-1-1 caller’s phone number and the location of the cell site or base station transmitting the call. The calls were then routed to the closest dispatch center.
Phase II. The second phase of “enhanced 9-1-1” services provides the wireless caller’s phone number, as well as much more precise location information – generally within 50-300 meters of the caller.
Is Phase II Available Near You?
The short answer is – maybe. Wireless phones send the caller’s longitude and latitude to emergency responders. In order for that information to be useful as a real address or location, those responders must have certain computer capabilities that map the caller’s location.
About 58% of emergency responders in the U.S. are capable of mapping the specific location information a wireless phone sends when the caller dials 9-1-1. Unfortunately, another 42% of emergency responders have not yet upgraded their systems to handle specific information from wireless callers.
Time To Get It Done
For many Americans, safety and security are a primary reason for owning a wireless phone. Accessing 9-1-1 emergency services from a wireless phone can save lives, prevent crimes, make communities safer, and enhance our homeland security. That’s why implementing Phase II of enhanced 9-1-1 services is so important. But, it requires close coordination and cooperation among local public safety agencies, wireless providers, and all levels of government. To find out if enhanced wireless 9-1-1 services are available in your area, you can visit the National Emergency Number Association’s Web site.