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.

Re:GPS and Cell phones?

[grammar nazi]

My question is who will issue the speeding tickets? Will the phone company call you and say, "Your cel phone GPS recorded that you are presently driving 90 in a 55. We have alerted the local law enforcement of your violation." or will the police station handle the phonecall once they have been notfied?

Perhaps the new Verizon/Disney/AOL/U.S.Justice.Dept will handle the entire issue by adding the fine to your monthly bill!

Idea after being mugged last year...

[Geek Dash Boy]

After getting mugged last year, I wrote down an idea for installing panic buttons in my blog.

I was 1.5 blocks from my apartment in Brooklyn when the guy grabbed my left arm and pressed a knife into my ribs.

As I reached into my right back pocket to get my wallet, my arm was pressing against my phone (Sprint PCS). It would have been very easy to activate some sort of panic button.

He only took about $60, but what if I were getting the shit kicked out of me, or raped, or whatever...

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."

Not quite the first..

[PenguinX]

Disclaimer: I work for TeleCommunication Systems Inc. - we provide nationwide E-911 service.

During the FCC mandate for Phase I - which most carriers still have not fully deployed was based on cellsite/sector / some other general location. For Phase II E-911 the requirement is a PDE. As there are literally hundreds of ways to get this information (GPS handsets are only one). Under the TCS solution for Phase II we query a "pluggable" PDE for the location information - so the only time that anyone gets your specific location information is only when it is needed (as in during a 911 call). The only real difference with the Sprint solution is that they have brought the PDE functionality in-house.

Just to try to help clarify...

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.

GPS Coverage

[Detritus]

I see one big problem with using GPS. It only works when you have a clear view of the sky. It doesn't work inside buildings or other places where the view is obstructed.

911 service can also be screwed up by PBX systems. I know of several cases where someone called 911 and the ambulance responded to the company headquarters building, where the PBX was located, instead of the building where the emergency occurred.

Re:GPS Coverage

[PatJensen]

Good post. Let me see if I can clarify why this is (as a PBX rookie of course) PBX's do not send location data unless your company has what is called a CAMA trunk. It is a special trunk that connects directly to 911 call centers to pass in-building location information that is in your switch translations.

I think digital PRI trunks can pass this information as well. When an emergency call is made, switch translations are read to find all sorts of useful information about your location. i.e. campus building, room number, office number, wiring jack number or whatever is programmed.

This information then shows on the screen of the 911 call center person that gets the call, so that office 911 calls can be routed properly. Hope that helps, that is what I learned in my Avaya training. Woohoo.

-Pat

Re:Why not cell triangulation?

[morcheeba]

That's the other method people are proposing.

GPS advantages/disadvantages:
+ precise
+ works great outdoors
- extra cost, extra weight, extra bulk (another antenna), less battery life
- doesn't work indoors or in cars

Triangulation advantages/disadvantages:
+ low cost
+ phones remain the same size/weight/battery life (triangulation can be mostly done in infrastructure)
- generally less precise
- in urban environments, multipath interference and distortion caused by buildings is a problem
- in rural environments, you're lucky to get a signal from one tower, much less 3!, so it doesn't work too well.

Note that the GPS implemntation doesn't need to be a full one-- some of the processing smarts can be located in the cell towers. Unfortuantly, this doesn't buy you much as the radio section is still the major size and power draw.

Performance of gps phone / Privacy protection

[morcheeba]

Here's a very-old press release (12-Apr-99) from the people who did the GPS portion of the phone. Some highlights:

Using prototype handsets from Motorola and Samsung, more than 8,000 test calls were made over a period of days and under a variety of conditions including clear skies, inside moving automobiles, inside homes and large buildings, and in wooded areas. The tests were conducted on GTE Wireless' 800MHz network and on Sprint PCS' 1900MHz network. Preliminary results show SnapTrack typically located callers with an accuracy under 25 meters. In optimal conditions, callers were located within five meters. In calling environments with extreme signal blockage, such as indoors where conventional GPS will not work, SnapTrack located callers within 90 meters, well below the FCC's 125-meter accuracy requirement.
...
A variety of miniature antennae also are being tested with each phone, and testing is conducted at all times of day in order to measure effects from GPS satellite constellation variation.

On their site, they have a spiel about privacy protection. Here's a quote:

Only when a subscriber dials 9-1-1 or requests a location service will the location be determined. Callers can initiate location requests the same way they control other phone functions.

Of course, who knows if this will be respected by the OEM's who implement the snaptrack technology in the phones. There's always the tin-foil-over-the-gps-antenna solution... maybe those people with the tin foil hats are on to something!

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.