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[Telecom] 911 service not universal

Several months ago, Consumers Reports did a report on cellular phones and included a discussion on 911 service. It found that:

1) Nearly half of the U.S. territory is still without 911 centers that can find wireless callers (mostly in rural areas, but that's where the need could be greatest.)

2) There are 109 counties that have no 911 service of any kind at all, a regular 7 or 10 digit number must be used to summon help.

I had presumed the entire country had advanced 911 service which would, for landline callers, give the 911 center the caller's address. Originally 911 just acted as a routing number and seized the trunk. Later enhancements gave it more sophistication including passing information about the caller based on their phone number from a database.

Isn't the entire US now ESS, perhaps not all digital ESS, but at least electronic switched?

Since some parts of the country have no 911 at all, I wonder how many other parts have old-style 911.

I also wonder how well location-finding for cell phone calls works. Plenty of people still have older handsets that don't have GPS and of course can't send any information. I wonder how good they can translate a coordinate location into a street address location, particularly in a built up area, or, in a confusing area with many buildings and odd streets and driveways.

(My own local govt's 911 service quality/capability is unknown as they refuse to discuss it for "security reasons", even when a citizen has had problems with it.)

Reply to
hancock4
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What you ment to say was that "E911" (enhanced 911 means that the center is automaticly given the caller's location).

Must be true Podunk! Heck, those areas probably use CB or SW radio anyway for important communications.

nit pick: it not called 'advanced' but "enhanced".

Yes. Briant Pond, Maine was the last place in the continental USA to have non-ESS service. They switched over some 10 years ago.

Cell Phone E911 is a work in progress. Some phones actually have GPS but most services use triangulation from nearby towers.

That's understandable. What is your question about it?

Reply to
Rick Merrill

Doesn't surprise me. There are many areas of the US that are still analog phone service, particularly in the rural west.

That number does surprise me. I know that the county surrounding Pittsburgh (Allegheny County) in Pennsylvania was the last major area in the US that didn't have 911 service. It was well into the 90s that the area I grew up in finally got 911. The major reason was that each tiny municipality (township, borough, etc.) had their own emergency services, but didn't have the money for 911. The township I lived in finally had 911 by the early 90s, but that was just a three-digit call forward type of arrangmenet for the 7 digit (at that time) police number. Eventually the service was upgraded for enhanced 911 service pretty much county wide, but most of the municpialities still handle their own 911 or go in as a group of townships/boroughs.

911 came in three stages: 1) A simple number for people to remember and dial, but all that did was just call the emergency center like a 7 digit number would. 2) When the caller called 911, the switch seized a speciall trunk to the emergency center and sent the ANI of the person's phone number. On landline phones, the caller's line can be "held up" just like an operator can (in other words, the line couldn't be hung up until the 911 operator dropped their end). 3) Enhanced 911 with databases with street addresses and probably maps.

Since late 1999, all the US has some sort of electronic switching system. Most are true digital with a handful of analog ESS. I think all these analog switches are 1AESS.

I'd say quite a few.

Depends on the person and how familiar they are with the area. Also, in rural areas you're lucky to get one tower, let alone two or three to get a good trianglulation.

I'd talk to your local government and not the emergency services folks.

Dave

Reply to
Diamond Dave

Reply to
Steven Lichter

Watcha wanna bet that a hefty number of those areas have a "911 surcharge" cheerfully being paid each month by the customers...??

Reply to
danny burstein

Erie PA (General System) used to use 1171 to get the fire dept and rescue squad well into the early 70s at least.

112 was the prefix for direct-dialed LD calls.

113 was information.

114 was repair.

116 was the test board (not for the general public, but that was what you got if you dialed it)

118 may have had some function, but I don't remember what it was.

I always wondered if these sorts of numbering assignments was a "GTE" thing.

***** Moderator's Note *****

Those numbers might have been derived from the MF codes used by Toll operators and Toll Test Board technicians such as I ;-).

121 was the Inward Operator 131 was info 141 was Rate & Route 161 was the testboard

(Please don't correct me if my memory has failed: they say the memory is the second thing to go.)

I'd better stop there: I might get into a confession about how many phone phreaks worded for the phone company.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

Reply to
Justa Lurker

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