E911 services successful despite limited access

From...

By Bob Brewin

(IDG) -- Lost in the fog on Lake Michigan on the night of November 17, a desperate boater used his cell phone to call 911. He got lucky. His call was picked up by a 911 operator at the Lake County, Indiana, Sheriff's Department -- one of only two public safety agencies in the nation equipped with Enhanced 911 (E911) equipment capable of pinpointing a caller's location to within 100 meters.

Scott Musgrove, director of 911 operations at the sheriff's department headquarters in Crown Point, Indiana, said the call was received by E911 equipment installed by the county in early September.

Software developed by Reston, Virginia-based Grayson Wireless computed the location of the cell phone by triangulating its location from cell towers located near the lakefront and quickly provided the dispatcher with its latitude and longitude. The process took just 15 seconds, according to Musgrove.

The dispatcher forwarded the information to a U.S. Coast Guard station in Chicago, which sent out a vessel to rescue the boater, Musgrove said.

IDG.net INFOCENTER Computerworld main page Computerworld's topic-oriented communities Computerworld's IT career center Free daily newsletters Related IDG.net Stories FCC approves delay in cellular location rollout House attempts to jump-start Enhanced 911 services CTIA: Location-based services in the spotlight Features PC World.com Product Finder Mastering e-commerce by degrees Fast-track training puts nontechies in IT jobs Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com UnixInsider IDG.net search

Norm Forshee, 911 coordinator for St. Clair County, Illinois, said he's had good results from the St. Clair E911 system, which began operation October 20. "We're averaging 400 to 500 [location] calls a day," Forshee said, with readouts in some cases far better than the 100-meter accuracy mandated by the Federal Communications Commission for network-based E911 systems. The FCC requires handset-based systems to provide location accuracy to within 50 meters.

"Sometimes, we've received locations within 100 feet, which is two-thirds better than the FCC requirements," Forshee said.

Forshee said his experience -- as well as the successful rollout of E911 services in Lake County -- proves that cellular location systems work and that the carriers need to embrace the technology. The FCC, which originally mandated that a nationwide E911 service be in place by the end of September, gave the carriers another five years to fully deploy the service due to technical difficulties they faced in meeting that deadline (see story).

According to Forshee, while existing E911 technology has some flaws, its proven utility dictates that "the carriers should make their best effort to get this out there. They should stop talking about costs, and start doing it."

In addition to St. Clair County and Lake County, only Bedminster, New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless is tied into the E911 system -- though both Forshee and Musgrove anticipate that other carriers will soon install the necessary equipment.

Kansas City, Missouri-based Sprint PCS is set to launch a GPS-based E911 system on Tuesday that will provide coverage in the entire state of Rhode Island, according to spokeswoman Amy Schiska.

Schiska said Sprint achieves that accuracy through the use of Samsung Electronics Co. phones equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) chips and network-based enhancements that help pinpoint calls made from indoors or from beneath outside obstructions, which interfere with GPS signals.

Alan Reiter, an analyst at Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing in Chevy Chase, Maryland, said that while the Lake County and St. Clair County E911 systems definitely prove the viability of the technology in emergencies, it's a big leap from that to the commercial success once envisioned for location services.

It will take years of work and millions of dollars for that to become a reality, Reiter said.