Cell phones have made it easier for people to report emergencies, but there is a gap in the service that can cause headaches for 911 dispatchers.
If the person reporting an emergency cannot give their location, the dispatcher has no way to home in on where the cell phone signal is coming from.
It is a problem encountered regularly by the 911 emergency dispatch centre at Brandon.
“It makes it difficult,” said Brian Kayes, manager of emergency communications for the Brandon Fire Department.
“You want to send help but you don’t know where it’s supposed to go.”
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The Brandon Fire Department handles calls for all of rural Manitoba that is on 911 and is in charge of dispatching fire and ambulance services.
The department receives an average of 350 calls to 911 each day. On a typical day, 50 of those calls are made from cell phones and one or two of them will come from someone who cannot give his or her location.
“You try to get them to remember what was the last highway they crossed or the last town sign that they saw,” said Kayes. “It makes it hard, for sure.”
In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission wants wireless carriers to have technology in place by this fall enabling 911 operators to zero in on the location of cell phones making emergency calls. The commission has set Oct. 1, 2001 as the deadline for implementing this capability.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has not imposed a similar deadline for wireless operators in Canada.
With cell phone location technology still in its infancy, the CRTC does not want to force wireless operators to rush ahead with a system that might later prove inadequate.
The commission also hopes operators in Canada can learn from the experience of companies in the U.S.
“Rather than trying to invent a unique wheel for the Canadian market, it is probably better to see how things shake out in America,” said Gary Krushen, a CRTC regional director in Winnipeg.
“We’re encouraging the industry in Canada to get solutions in place, but we realize there are practical limitations, as well.”
Telus Mobility has already done trials in Alberta to find out which location technology would work best for its cell phone customers.
The company wants to start bringing that service to its customers in Alberta and British Columbia by the end of this year. The emphasis will first be on major urban centres and will gradually extend to rural areas.
Telus wants to add the location technology to its wireless customers elsewhere in Canada next year, said company spokesperson Nick Culo.
In Saskatchewan, the emphasis is on getting 911 service into all areas of the province by the end of 2002.
Once that is done, attention will turn to cell phone location technology.
“It’s something that we’re very much interested in,” said SaskTel spokesperson Tim Kydd. “It would be an invaluable part of the program.”
Manitoba Telecom Services shares a similar sentiment and is watching to see what technology works best in trials Bell Canada plans for Ontario. MTS also hopes to learn from the experience of Telus Mobility.
“Because the technology is so new, we’re still not ready to start offering it here,” said Michelle Picard of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.
“We don’t know which technology works better than the other.”
About three million calls are made to 911 each year on wireless phones in Canada, said Marc Choma, communications director for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.
Choma said 911 was developed before cell phones first appeared in Canada. That meant the emergency dispatch service was developed with traditional wire line phones in mind.
When a person punches 911 from a wire line phone, personnel at the answering centre see a screen displaying the number of the caller and the address. The information is available in seconds.
Kayes looks forward to the day when getting the number and location of a cell phone caller becomes as easy.
“The sooner, the better.”
