A short circuit for cellular E911- Where are you?
It’s very likely that when you call 911 from your cell phone in an emergency, the operator on the other end won’t automatically know your location. This is despite the fact that most U.S. mobile phone companies have met a Federal Communications Commission mandate to provide location information to 911 operators for millions of wireless subscribers. After years of work, the wireless phone industry is still a long way from full deployment of what is known as enhanced 911 service, or E911.
The FCC estimates that of the 200 million calls made to 911 each year, about a third of them are from callers using a mobile phone. In many communities, over half of 911 calls are placed from cell phones. With more than 220 million wireless subscribers in the nation, it makes sense that a growing number of emergency calls would come from cell phones. Roughly 30 percent of people who bought a cell phone in the past 12 months did so for emergencies, according to Consumer Reports.
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