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."

Comments

Re:911 Abuse

[dattaway]

Maybe the first thing she should do is put the non-emergency police number on her phone so she doesn't have to tie up an emergency line with this bs.

We have the non-emergency police number programmed, just because we want to talk to a real officer and not put on hold to talk with some dumb 911 operator who makes us repeat our address 10 times and other dumb questions. We had a house burn down in front of ours, because it took 911 over 15 minutes to answer. I could have walked to the fire station quicker. We then discovered the non-emergency number and can get an officer here less than a minute any time. Its a real pleasure to talk with a real officer who has a clue what I need help with too. 911 operators don't have that quality.

Re:Well, duh.

[GreyPoopon]

What we need is some good European style competition!

Could you describe what, exactly, the European brands have to offer that solves our problem? Somehow, I don't think paying a whopping premium to call a mobile number from my landline is a solution. If that happens, I'll just stop calling mobile numbers altogether. I'm perfectly happy with T-Mobile except for the lack of a PDA-phone that performs well enough to make it usable, and the lack of UMTS. Both of those are supposed to be fixed early next year. I'd like to see any European plan that provides me with 700+ minutes of unlimited calling and a data plan for two PDA phones at less than $100 per month.

I'm not taunting you or trying to argue. I just really want to know what it is the European competition offers that I'm missing.