911 Service on Internet

Britians back in 1937 could dial "999" to get police, medical, or fire assistance from anywhere in the country. Here in the United States, Congress first started looking into a standard emergency-call format in 1958, finally passing the legal mandate in 1967. The first cell phone hit the market in 1984, weighed 2 pounds, let people talk for 30 minutes on each charging, and cost $3,995. A recent CNN article refers to them as truly being "bricks."

The passage of time and expanse of the telecommunications industry, however, hasn’t managed too good of a match between the two. A 2001 PC World article relates a Senate committee’s urging that “the wireless industry & public safety agencies should step up their work on a ‘new technology’ that helps emergency dispatchers precisely locate 911 calls from wireless phones. At present,” the article continues, “conventional 911 calls from fixed lines can be automatically traced to an address, but wireless calls can only be tracked to the nearest cell phone tower.” The individual placing the call needs to provide all the information as to the location of the emergency.

The FCC established a four-year schedule for these developments, generally “requiring wireless carriers provide more precise location information, within 50 to 300 meters in most cases,” targeted to be completed by December 31, 2005. Progress on the federal undertaking was reported earlier this month.

There are other glitches apparent in “wireless 911.” Last month, Texas filed suit against Vonage saying the provider failed to clearly inform customers that they couldn’t just automatically dial “911” when they signed up for the service. Earlier this week, proposed legislation in Illinois was announced which would require wireless telephone providers to provide terms of the plan… and other specified information to consumers before service is offered and include that information in a publication & advertising. (See HB.0827 )