For years, making a 911 call on your cellphone was an exercise in frustration, and a problem that was growing as more than half of emergency calls are made from a mobile.
"I think it's fair to say more and more people are not having their fixed land line anymore and just have one phone that's always with them," said Sgt. Jim Egan, 911 communications supervisor for the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, which hosts the city's central emergency reporting bureau out of the police detachment on Second Line.
The problem is that unlike those using a land line, cellphone users in Sault Ste. Marie were not automatically linked to the city's emergency bureau when they dialed 911.
Depending on where they are, they were just as likely to link up with the American tower on the other side of the river and reach the Chippewa County emergency services, which cannot patch callers through to their Canadian counterparts, or the OPP communications branch in North Bay.
Those in the east end were likely to get the OPP's towers near the waterfront in Laird Township rather than the Bell Mobility tower downtown, which would give access to a local dispatcher.
As of now, all customers of the three providers in our area -- Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus -- will have their latitude and longitude come up when they call the emergency operator.
Emergency services are working with the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre to make map upgrades, and Egan said the operator will know one's location within a radius of 50 metres.
Last February, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication gave Canada's wireless service providers one year -- to this Monday -- to make the upgrades. Bell and Rogers were already in compliance, with Telus joining them this week.
Phase one wireless was launched in 2005, giving an emergency operators a wireless caller's phone number and the location of the cellular site carrying the call. Some older handsets lack the technology to provide the more precise phase two location information, and will fall back to providing 911 operators with phase one information.
"As the bugs are worked out of the system and upgrades go up, it will get even better for first responders," Egan said.
Via: saultstar
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Posted By Admin to Indonesia Type Approval at 1/30/2010 03:47:00 PM
"I think it's fair to say more and more people are not having their fixed land line anymore and just have one phone that's always with them," said Sgt. Jim Egan, 911 communications supervisor for the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, which hosts the city's central emergency reporting bureau out of the police detachment on Second Line.
The problem is that unlike those using a land line, cellphone users in Sault Ste. Marie were not automatically linked to the city's emergency bureau when they dialed 911.
Depending on where they are, they were just as likely to link up with the American tower on the other side of the river and reach the Chippewa County emergency services, which cannot patch callers through to their Canadian counterparts, or the OPP communications branch in North Bay.
Those in the east end were likely to get the OPP's towers near the waterfront in Laird Township rather than the Bell Mobility tower downtown, which would give access to a local dispatcher.
As of now, all customers of the three providers in our area -- Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus -- will have their latitude and longitude come up when they call the emergency operator.
Emergency services are working with the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre to make map upgrades, and Egan said the operator will know one's location within a radius of 50 metres.
Last February, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication gave Canada's wireless service providers one year -- to this Monday -- to make the upgrades. Bell and Rogers were already in compliance, with Telus joining them this week.
Phase one wireless was launched in 2005, giving an emergency operators a wireless caller's phone number and the location of the cellular site carrying the call. Some older handsets lack the technology to provide the more precise phase two location information, and will fall back to providing 911 operators with phase one information.
"As the bugs are worked out of the system and upgrades go up, it will get even better for first responders," Egan said.
Via: saultstar
--
Posted By Admin to Indonesia Type Approval at 1/30/2010 03:47:00 PM
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