Recently launched E9-1-1 Technology gives police specific location information on 911 calls made on wireless phones.
Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless recently launched the nation’s first deployments of wireless E9-1-1 location determination technology systems. Sprint PCS deployed its system on its network in the state of Rhode Island, and Verizon Wireless marked deployments in St. Clair, Ill., and Lake County, Ind.
This technology allows police departments to track the exact location of a wireless phone from which a 911 call is made. This is meant to solve problems for citizens who might be in danger and cannot communicate their location verbally. It should also make policemen's lives easier by cutting down on time spent locating 911 callers.
In some areas, up to 50 percent of the 9-1-1 calls local emergency response agencies receive now come from wireless phones. However, until the Rhode Island, Indiana and Illinois deployments, those calls did not transmit precise location data anywhere in the country and transmitted phone number information only in certain locations.
The deployments come in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Oct. 1, 2001 deadline for compliance with their Docket 94-102, which mandates that location and phone number information similar to that transmitted with wireline enhanced 9-1-1 calls be transmitted with wireless 9-1-1 calls as well.