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Why Uber Can Find You but 911 Can't (wsj.com)
Accurate location data is on smartphones, so why don't more wireless carriers use it to locate emergency callers? From a report, shared by a reader: Software on Apple's iPhones and Google's Android smartphones help mobile apps like Uber and Facebook to pinpoint a user's location, making it possible to order a car, check in at a local restaurant or receive targeted advertising. But 911, with a far more pressing purpose, is stuck in the past. U.S. regulators estimate as many as 10,000 lives could be saved each year if the 911 emergency dispatching system were able to get to callers one minute faster. Better technology would be especially helpful, regulators say, when a caller can't speak or identify his or her location. After years of pressure, wireless carriers and Silicon Valley companies are finally starting to work together to solve the problem. But progress has been slow. Roughly 80% of the 240 million calls to 911 each year are made using cellphones, according to a trade group that represents first responders. For landlines, the system shows a telephone's exact address. But it can register only an estimated location, sometimes hundreds of yards wide, from a cellphone call. That frustration is now a frequent source of tension during 911 calls, said Colleen Eyman, who oversees 911 services in Arvada, Colo., just outside Denver.
In 1996, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an order requiring wireless carriers to determine and transmit the location of callers who dial 9-1-1. The FCC set up a phased program: Phase I involved sending the location of the receiving antenna for 9-1-1 calls, while Phase II sends the location of the calling telephone. Carriers were allowed to choose to implement 'handset based' location by Global Positioning System (GPS) or similar technology in each phone, or 'network based' location by means of triangulation between cell towers. The order set technical and accuracy requirements: carriers using 'handset based' technology must report handset location within 50 meters for 67% of calls, and within 150 meters for 90% of calls; carriers using 'network based' technology must report location within 100 meters for 67% of calls and 300 meters for 90% of calls.
The order also laid out milestones for implementing wireless location services. Many carriers requested waivers of the milestones, and the FCC granted many of them. By mid-2005, implementation of Phase II was generally underway, limited by the complexity of coordination required from wireless and wireline carriers, PSAPs, and other affected government agencies; and by the limited funding available to local agencies which needed to convert PSAP equipment to display location data (usually on computerized maps).
In July 2011, the FCC announced a proposed rule requiring that after an eight-year implementation period, at some yet-to-be-determined date in 2019, wireless carriers will be required to meet more stringent location accuracy requirements. If enacted, this rule would require both "handset based" and "network based" location techniques to meet the same accuracy standard, regardless of the underlying technology used. The rule is likely to have no effect as all major carriers will have already achieved over 85% GPS chipset penetration, and are thus able to meet the standard regardless of their 'network based' location capabilities.
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Or, and just stick with me a sec, this will be complicated - it's because you contact UBER VIA A DATA STREAM THAT CAN SEND LOCATION INFORMATION and regular telco systems were not orignally designed to have a data carrier signal. Caller ID was strapped on at some point, but EVERY SWITCH ALONG THE WAY has to be updated, and the entire 911 center changed from being a telephone line, to a data endpoint on the internet.
It boggles my mind that anyone, anywhere, with any degree of a tech background, could ever ask "why can Uber find me but 911 can't?" Walk over to a payphone and call Uber. Can they find you then? Is there even a number to call? 911 mapped your number to your address via info from the phone companies. Mobile phones are mobile. They move around. They can't be just mapped via a simple lookup. And unless you can send a datastream to the person you're calling and give them your gps info...why in the holy hell would you think they can just know here you are? ALSO, think hard before you give the police the ability to always track your location, independently of the phone company. Whatever solution you do, might be best as one that only works for the 911 call itself, not just in general (some solutions suggest the former, for "simplicity," since it would require less infrastructure changes on the local gov).
Why not just have a 911 App preinstalled on all phones. Single click and you are able to connect. Only cooperation needed from phone companies is that the App should work even without data service kind of like how even a locked phone can be used to call 911. Send the GPS data stream in the App. HAve the app backend call the 911 switchboard and patch the call through with a prerecorded message - This call is coming from .....
Meanwhile, the call gets routed to the PSAP. It uses the address of the closest tower to find out which correct PSAP is supposed to answer.
Having worked 911 for 8 years, I can vouch for this. And you have no idea how PISSED people get when they get connected to the wrong 911 center and have to be transferred to another one. I worked for a county 911 center here in the Atlanta Metropolitan area and the centers here (when I worked there) were only connected to the surrounding centers. I actually had to relay through THREE centers to get them to the correct PSAP, either through a really long distance connection or the cell phone tower misrouting the call.
I am so glad I don't have to put up with that anymore. It was hell enough a lot of times when it was had to be transferred to the next county over. And if there was a major accident on the Interstate the phone lines would go crazy.
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
From my experience in San Diego:
Usually, if you call 911, youâ(TM)ll sit on hold for three or four minutes.
When you do get through, if youâ(TM)re calling for something as trivial as thieves returning to your house while your wife is there alone, donâ(TM)t be so inconsiderate as to call while itâ(TM)s raining or theyâ(TM)ll tell you theyâ(TM)re not going to dispatch someone until after the rain stops and your wife should just leave the house. No. Seriously. SDPD pulled that shit.
If you call back because youâ(TM)re seriously concerned about her safety, once youâ(TM)re done holding again, expect to be told to stop calling 911 for something as trivial as a potential home invasion.
Donâ(TM)t be surprised when you can drive the 80+ miles back from Orange County and still be there an hour before the police show up after the rain stops.
The police are a revenue generation service for cities. They do not serve. They do not protect.
Itâ(TM)s not a racist thing. They donâ(TM)t care about you, regardless of your skin color.
Having phones tell them where you are and get them to you a minute faster changes a two hour response to an hour and fifty nine minutes. The criminals will be long gone, regardless.
Mind you, it might help for ambulances, once you get past the lousy 911 hold times.