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GPS Meets PCS
The Donald writes: "According to an article at News.com, Sprint PCS will be starting to implement E911 calls in Rhode Island sometime in October. The FCC required that all cell phone providers have an improved E911 system in place by October first. This is the first step in making the E911 a reality, with Sprint being the first major company to actually put a phone on the market that will work with E911; instead of just filing papers with the FCC saying the implementation is just to hard. The Samsung N300 phone will use GPS to track the people down. I like the idea, I just hope the phone will display the GPS information, and there is a way to opt-out for all of the location based advertisements you will get with your GPS enabled phone."
How about enabling a switch to disable GPS except during 911 calls?
Skivvy Niner? Email me!
HEY! Look left just ONE MORE TIME!
I wonder if the positional info could be used by the owner of the phone for some purpose - maybe tracking a fleet of drivers realtime or coupled with Wireless Web to provide navigation. There are some neat possibilities here that Sprint could capitalize on.
"So, um...like...second post d00dz!!!"
OK, now that I've got that out of the way (and probably pushed myself to 10th post as a result) here's a real comment.
Ads. Ads on the phone that *I* pay for. Quite simply, there won't be any. If any company tries to advertise themselves on my phone for which I pay per-minute charges, they'll find themselves on the ugly end of a lawsuit involving the "junk fax" law and some very bloodthirsty lawyers.
If you want to advertise to my phone, then someone else will be paying my damned monthly charges. Otherwise, beware.
As an aside, I've been around long enough to see that advertisers have pushed the boundaries far enough that the pushing back we see now is an inevitable result of what's been going on for the last two decades. The end result is that we're not going to stand for much in the way of blatant advertising in anything we buy, do, or watch. All that means is that the advertisers will become sneakier.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
The example always given for this locater technology is 911 calls. Now, when you are calling 911, you do want them to know your location -- the sooner the better really. And I can see how this could serve a useful purpose. Politicians certainly pushed this application when stating their requirement to cell phone manufacturers.
/. are well aware, is that this is yet another step toward Big Brother. Insert the usual arguments here ["Oh c'mon, stop being so paranoid!" "Yeah, but why give them the power to abuse in the first place?"]. How far will this technology be extended? Will they start to track your location on the highways, to see if you are speeding if you get from location A to location B faster than you ought? If someone corrupt within some government agency decides they don't like you because of your idealogy (whatever it may be), can they start to track your locations at all times?
The downside to this, of course, as we at
I would like this technology if it can be turned off when desired, even if it's only out of principle. I don't like having a choice taken from me, even if it is "for my own good."
________________
Private Essayist
Budget (the rental car company) already implemented that, and they started tacking fines onto invoices.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
I can tell you as someone who volunteers for both a fire department and an EMS service, how important E911 is. There are very often times where passing moterists will call 911 and report a car fire on the expressway, somewhere around exit 30 eastbound. Now often this is enough information and we can easily respond to the call. However, if they tell us its after exit 31, and it turns out to be before exit 30, then that means we have to continue down the expressway, turn around at the next exit, circle back at least to the exit before the accident, then turn around again and get back on in the right direction. This has just caused a delay in our response by at least a couple of minutes which can often mean the difference between some insulation burning under the hood, or the total loss of a car. On the other hand (EMS side) a five minute delay can mean the difference between saving a life. If someone is involved in an accident and loosing blood quickly, every second counts.
This winter, when coming home from the grocery store, I witnessed someone on a motorcycle take a turn just too sharply. The bike fell over on him and crushed his leg. I called 911 to report the accident on my cellphone (Verizon), and I didn't even have to tell the kind lady where I was, she told me. I went home that night and did some reseach, and found out that they can in fact pinpoint the location of a call. I beleve the company responsible for some of this is Cell-Loc (or something like that).
Hopefully, though, they won't use this to 'magically' close the store early on the day my bill is due, because they traced my calls and found out I am heading their way....
--- At my sig, unleash hell.
With the current anti terrorism mood, I doubt you'll be able to opt out.
In fact, if they weren't going to continuously log your whereabouts before, they probably will now. After all, we're just using this data retroactively to investigate terrorist attacks.
And they probably are only using the data that way. Today. But what about ten years from now when things are different, but they still have much greater access to things they should not? What about when we're no longer in a war against terrorism? Our government agencies don't have a great track record of not abusing power.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
"...to opt-out for all of the location based advertisements you will get with your GPS enabled phone"
Just like adds that can now be targeted at you based on where you are (thanks to the GPS enabled phones), there is something else that is also inevitable. Think about "targeted" viruses.
Those "smart" viruses would scare me more than those dull adds.
Karma stuck at 50? Add 2-5 inches.. err.. 2-5x Karmas Count to your pen1es.. err.. Karma all naturally and private
Well, to tell you the truth, these types of phones (WAP enabled, GPS enabled, etc.) exist already. They are in very small quantity here in the US, but exist rather abundantly in Japan. The big problem was they didn't catch on as soon as expected here in the states, and companies like AMD and Intel projected that they would, thus the huge crash in the Flash memory business (ramp really hard on super-dense flash, then nobody buys it...). So if you're in Japan, you can get one of these multi-functional super phones. If you're not there, you'll have to wait.
Prevention might work. Deterrence might work (i.e., arm yourself, unpopular in some circles but effective). But no button can bring the cops to your side in anything less then five minutes... and usually much more then that.
Since GPS is so weak, couldn't a tiny device be constructed that would jam all GPS recievers within say, 3 inches? It could be placed on the phone, and removed if the user ever wished to use 911. There is no way the cellular system could tell the difference between deliberate blocking and being in a GPS "dead zone". GPS doesn't usually work within buildings anyway, so to require GPS would mean that the cellular phone could only be used outside, when there is sattelite coverage. Since this would be stupid, there would be no way the phone companies could do anything about it. The jamming device would have to be extremely short range (again, about 2-3 inches, just enough to disrupt the GPS reciever in the phone) to avoid interfering with other people's phones.
I work for SignalSoft Corp (http://www.signalsoftcorp.com) on their Wireless 911 product (http://www.signalsoftcorp.com/products/911/911.h
I see good and bad in all this. The good is that the E911 service is probably very useful. And in benign applications, cell phone tracking is not necessarily terrible. The bad is that I'm pretty sure that sooner or later, this technology WILL be abused. We attempt to build safeguards into our software to prevent abuse (http://www.signalsoftcorp.com/newsroom/pressrele
So, here's the scoop. If you are worried that you are worth tracking by powerful government agencies or very, very rich people, do one of two things: A) don't carry a cell phone or, B) take the battery out of your cell phone. B) is not foolproof, but it should be good enough until cell phone manufacturers are required by law to include a small backup battery in the guts of a cell phone large enough to run a GPS receiver. Fortunatly, current batteries are very bulky and expensive, and including a nonremovable secondary one in cell phones big enough to run a GPS receiver is likely to be many years in coming.
Second, push for privacy legislation. I don't know the laws governing cell phone tracking, but I bet they're a lot laxer than they should be. A court order (like a search warrant) should be necessary for any government agency to track the cell phone of any US citizen. If this is currently the case, great. If not... let's get a bill like this passed post-haste.
-Anonymous Coward who doesn't want to lose his job right now.
Part of the gov't mandate is that the cellphones must be equipped to transmit requested GPS data even if they aren't turned on.
But they're only going to use it to find people making 911 calls. Right. Absolutely.
Kevin Fox
In the UK the number of deals and tarriffs are huge.
At one extreme you can pay a fairly high monthly rental (many tens of uk£) and get a large number of "free" (ie inclusive" minutes) - with extra minutes getting billed at a very low rate.
At the other extreme you can have a tariff with "no contract", no monthly fee, no minimum spend, calls paid for in advance - and expensive calls.
In between there are a large number of different plans.
Generally calls are charged to the nearest second - but with a minimum charge - typically 1 miute. Some networks and tariffs have a very brief "free" period - something like two or four seconds. The idea is you don't get charged if you get answered by voicemail and don't want to leave a message.
Incoming calls are always free for the person receiving the call. Expensive for the person making the call - but OFTEL are controlling this and forcing charges down - and have been for some time.
Sometimes you have to pay for retreiving voicemails, frequently this is free.
Receiving SMS is free - but sending can be free or can be charged for.
Network to Network calls can be hugely expensive - but OFTEL have just stamped on our mobile companies and are forcing them to reduce their charges.
We have number portability - which means that if you change network (or tariff) you can take your number with you. This does cause problems because you are charged according to the network which receives the call - but portability means you can't determine which network you are dialling from the number dialled.
Getting the right tariff can be tricky - but if you get it right the total cost can be very low. I currently pay £20 per phone per month - and get free voicemail, Calls I make when I am within about 5 miles of where I live are about £0.02 / minute billed by the second with a 1 minute minimum. Calls I make when I am outside this area are £0.09 / minute, billed by the second and with a free £16 included in the rental.
AJB