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."

Comments

GPS location

[RedOregon]

How about enabling a switch to disable GPS except during 911 calls?

Ads???

[swordgeek]

"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.

The good and the bad of it

[Private Essayist]

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.

The downside to this, of course, as we at /. 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?

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."

E911 is very important

[TheTwoBest]

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.

Another big brother checking in.

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for SignalSoft Corp (http://www.signalsoftcorp.com) on their Wireless 911 product (http://www.signalsoftcorp.com/products/911/911.ht ml). Some of my cow-orkers used to laugh at me when I constantly refered to the place as "BigBrotherSoft." They stopped laughing a while ago, when we acquired a company called BFound, which does location tracking of trucks by cell phone-like equipment. And just if you want a taste of the future, go visit the mobilePosition AB website (http://www.mobileposition.com), which was also recently acquired by SignalSoft. Ever wanted to know where your friend was? Well, sooner or later it will probably happen.

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/pressrelea ses/q2_2001/press_sgsfam.html) but the fact of the matter is, PDEs (cell phone location tracking systems) exist and they are out there and working right now. Some of them work by calculating the angle that your cell phone signal arrives at multiple towers, some work off the time it takes your cell phone signal to propogate to multiple towers, some work off GPS, but all of them can geolocate you to some extent or another. And those PDEs can be tapped before our software even gets its hands on the location data. Our safeguards will do nothing to stop a cell phone company from tracking you. They will only prevent our software from doing so.

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.

Re:First minute free is NOT ubiquitous in the US

[choco]

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.