Comments on: The Wireless Association Unhappy with Last Night’s FCC Vote http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2007/09/12/the-wireless-association-unhappy-with-last-night%e2%80%99s-fcc-vote/ All About Mobile 2.0 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:02:38 +0000 hourly 1 By: Teri http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2007/09/12/the-wireless-association-unhappy-with-last-night%e2%80%99s-fcc-vote/comment-page-1/#comment-254970 Teri Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:58:04 +0000 http://mobilecrunch.com/2007/09/12/the-wireless-association-unhappy-with-last-night%e2%80%99s-fcc-vote/#comment-254970 There already is a quagmire, and there already <i>is</i> an unrealistic expectation on the part of the public as to how W911 works. The wireless industry needs to be pushed, and pushed hard. Yes, they really are trying to provide wireless 911 technology that matches wireline, but it's not there yet and they have done NOTHING to help educate their customers as to the inherent dangers that assuming equivalent technology service means. When you dial 911 on your cell phone right now do you <i>know</i> where it goes? The Phase II tech is weak; sometimes it works but most times it doesn't. And did you know that if you have an unitialized phone and you dial 911, <b>your number cannot be called back?</b> If the call is dropped for any reason, they cannot call you back. You the user <b>need</b> to know where you are when you are calling W911. You <b>need</b> to pay attention when you're driving - no irony intended there. You <b>need</b> to have your local police department speed dial programmed into your phone because until the technology actually works the way it should, you'll get help to you faster by dialing the correct 7-digit number. Wireline service works by hardline routing your call to the correct PSAP. <b>Wireless can't accurately do that yet.</b> What dispatchers get, 9 out of 10 times, when you call 911 on your cell phone is the location of the cell tower that your call hit on. Do you want to trust your life to that? There already is a quagmire, and there already is an unrealistic expectation on the part of the public as to how W911 works.

The wireless industry needs to be pushed, and pushed hard. Yes, they really are trying to provide wireless 911 technology that matches wireline, but it’s not there yet and they have done NOTHING to help educate their customers as to the inherent dangers that assuming equivalent technology service means.

When you dial 911 on your cell phone right now do you know where it goes? The Phase II tech is weak; sometimes it works but most times it doesn’t.

And did you know that if you have an unitialized phone and you dial 911, your number cannot be called back? If the call is dropped for any reason, they cannot call you back.

You the user need to know where you are when you are calling W911.

You need to pay attention when you’re driving – no irony intended there.

You need to have your local police department speed dial programmed into your phone because until the technology actually works the way it should, you’ll get help to you faster by dialing the correct 7-digit number.

Wireline service works by hardline routing your call to the correct PSAP. Wireless can’t accurately do that yet.

What dispatchers get, 9 out of 10 times, when you call 911 on your cell phone is the location of the cell tower that your call hit on. Do you want to trust your life to that?

]]> By: ianmartinez http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2007/09/12/the-wireless-association-unhappy-with-last-night%e2%80%99s-fcc-vote/comment-page-1/#comment-253359 ianmartinez Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:51:36 +0000 http://mobilecrunch.com/2007/09/12/the-wireless-association-unhappy-with-last-night%e2%80%99s-fcc-vote/#comment-253359 Wireless and public safety entities will need to work together to develop standards, test and validate various methods, and to deploy networks themselves -- otherwise you get a interoperability quagmire during times of crisis. While everyone agrees that there's more to do and probably will be for quite a while, as a technical matter, there are limits to what can be done in a year's time. All the FCC is doing here is preemptively levying fines on carriers that won't be able to provide E-911 location service. That just raises prices for network operators... and then the consumer. Wireless and public safety entities will need to work together to develop standards, test and validate various methods, and to deploy networks themselves — otherwise you get a interoperability quagmire during times of crisis. While everyone agrees that there’s more to do and probably will be for quite a while, as a technical matter, there are limits to what can be done in a year’s time.

All the FCC is doing here is preemptively levying fines on carriers that won’t be able to provide E-911 location service. That just raises prices for network operators… and then the consumer.

]]>