Will Your Cell Phone Reach 911 in an Emergency

If you're one of the millions of cell phone users who count on their wireless phone for emergency 911 calling........

You might want to think again.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that your 911 call will be routed to an emergency call center. Much less, the emergency dispatcher will have the ability to pinpoint the call's location.

Why?

Part of the problem is lack of service. Often, in more rural areas, your cell phone has fewer towers available to receive reception. And, many of those towers are designed for analog calls - not digital.

But, since the FCC does not require it, fewer carriers offer analog service -- or the ability to connect to it.

Not surprising, since much of the carriers' revenue is dependant on features available only on digital networks.

Another problem?

There is no uniform Ehanced 911 system (E911) for wireless carriers. The FCC neglected to force the carriers to conform their E911 systems to a single technology.

Because of this, there are now two incompatable E911 systems in the works.

Nextel, Sprint and Verizon each have cell phones available that use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to find a caller's location. While Cingular and T-Mobile rely on a triangulation system.

Unfortunately, both E911 systems have their flaws. The GPS system needs a minimum of three satalites to be able to "read" the handset's location. Accuracy can be hampered by heavy vegetation, mountains or tall buildings.

The triangulation system also has its shortcomings, because it relies on the strength and timing of cell towers to determine a location. It, too, requires multiple towers for accuracy. This becomes more difficult in rural areas where towers are scarce.

To compound the problem, Emergency Call Centers are not equipt with the technology needed to field E911 calls. Most smaller centers lack the funding for the sophisticated equiptment, while others lack the knowledge on how to integrate it to their existing system.

According to a 2004 article in the San Diego Union Tribune, only about 12% of the country's 911 centers had the ability to pinpoint the location of wireless phone users emergency calls.

Which cell phone is best?

Dual band, or tri-band phones, allow both analog and digital frequencies. If a 911 call does not connect in a digital mode, the alternate analog network is available.

The FCC also requires that any carrier offering multi-frequency phones must allow the 911 call to roam to another service, if the call can not be completed on their own network.

Currently, only Cingular and Verizon offer dual or tri-bands for both their service and handsets. Sprint PCS and T-Mobile wireless phones operate on a digital band, but allow analog roaming.

Nextel uses its own iDEN network, which has limited roaming ability.

The ringtone industry is striking a popular cord with the teenage market. This group, mostly 13 to 24-year-olds, likes to purchase their favorite tune or sound without paying the high price for a CD. This segment isn't afraid to drop lots of discretionary income to download monophonic or polyphonic sounds, which makes the ringtone industry very happy.

According to RealityTVWorld.com, today’s teens are willing to substitute cell phone minutes for the latest ringtone. This behavior places this age group in the largest population of ringtone purchasers. Since over 40% of cell phone users fall into this group and have disposable income, the ringtone industry is making the most of this opportunity. The market is so large among this young population that, according to a study by Wireless World Forum, young people are spending eight times more on mobile phones than music. Currently, trends in the U.K. show that the ringtone market holds 10% of the total music market. This population's buying power is equally impressive in the United States where teenagers spend nearly as much on ringtones as on text messaging. The sale of ringtones worldwide adds up to $3.5 billion, according to IT Facts online (https://www.itfacts.biz).

Naturally, the music industry isn't highly thrilled about this shift in sales from the more expensive CD to much less expensive ringtones - even though the publisher or songwriter of the music or tone is entitles to royalties. Still, a ringtone royalty isn't quite as high of a percentage as a CD royalty. Some future analysts of this market are predicting that the mobile phone and ringtone industry are going to dip even farther into the music industry by giving mobile phones technology similar to iPods.