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Worry Over VZW, Sprint Phones' 911 Alarm
[TheBORG] writes "An Austin woman who dialed 911 recently discovered what she said could be a fatal flaw in some new cell phones. She called for help when she arrived at some vacant property she owns in east Austin and found her security chain gone. She grabbed her new Verizon Wireless Casio G'zOne phone, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911. Fearing vandals were still on the property, she hung up and hid, then put her hand over the earpiece and dialed again to muffle the sounds. A Verizon Wireless spokesperson says it's mandatory according to Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act. The FCC says Section 255 of the Telecommunications Code requires that phones let a caller know a 911 call is underway, but does not require an audible alarm. This thread on Howardforums.com mentions that the alarm is present on new Sprint phones too."
I call 911 on a regular basis to report out of control drivers and street fights (I live in Boston, there are tons of both of these). All my Verizon phones (I've had three) go into "Emergency Mode" when you call 911 and stay in this mode for several minutes after the conversation has ended then make a loud chirp when going back into non-emergency mode.
Two semi-related notes... first, a couple months ago my battery died when I was reporting a street fight. When I checked my voicemail after it was done charging I had an irate message from a cop yelling, "DO NOT HANG UP ON THE BOSTON POLICE!" and threatening me with arrest!
Second... on Nokia candy bar phones when the keypad is locked you can key in 911 and it'll automatically come out of the locked mode. Also, 112 does the same. Can anyone tell me what 112 is?
sig.
It is the GSM international emergency number, and the European emergency number. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-1-2
In the Netherlands we have a similar service (we dial 112 instead of 911), which sometimes gets called accidentally. A human picks up the call, hears nobody on the other side, and hangs up. The caller gets an SMS that notifies him that he/she dialed 112 accidentally. Way better system.
This is another problem that can easily be solved by carrying a handgun.
The way it works in NA, IIRC, is that if 911 is called and the operator doesn't hear anyone, they have to assume the worst and send fire, police and ambulance to the address of the phone (if it's a land line). Not sure how it works for cell phones.
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Unfortunately it would be criminal to remove it, thanks to Congress.
Now the article says the FCC doesn't require a loud tone, which is technically true. Unfortunately the Telecommunications Act DOES require a loud noise of some type, so that blind people are aware that they've dialed 911.
This is a mandated "accessibility" feature. The FCC says they're free to remove the "alarm" but at best they could replace it with a loud voice announcing "you're calling 911!" which I don't think would help.
In this case Congress deserves the blame for passing a law without thinking of the consequences. They demanded that all phones make it clear to blind people that they had dialed 911, and the only way to do that on phones without a Braille interface is a loud noise of some form. No matter what the FCC says about the alarm not being "required," some form of loud noise IS required.
And now the punchline ... In the UK our number is 999, but nowadays 911 works too.
I remember the rationale given that many children would see it on TV and not know it wasn't supposed to apply to them...
No, she did the right thing. The non-emergency numbers are for non-emergencies. One clue that you're not having an emergency is that it seems like a reasonable idea to go to the phone book and skim through a few blue-pages until you find the right number. Obviously, if you have reason to believe you might have to put yourself in physical danger to even get to the phone book, you're not having a non-emergency.
It's important not to abuse the emergency numbers, but it's also just as important not to be nervous about using them when you actually need to.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Here in Spain we also have 112. I accidentally dialed it once on my cellphone. What they did after hearing no response was hanging up and then calling back to ask if everything was ok, I presume to avoid just the kind of unfortunate situation you described.
Just to offer up a word of caution, I've read quite a few times that semi-autos don't cycle properly with Glasers. So if you're going to use them, test them first. (This would actually apply to any loading you plan to use for defense)
It isn't cheap, especially with the price tag on Glasers. But defending your life isn't cheap either, with lost income and legal costs.
I don't expect morality, equality, consistency, or justice from the law. I expect only legality.