Calling 911 from your cell phone instead of a home phone

[jkb919 0]

Hello all,

I am a 911 operator/dispatcher for a Fire Dept. and handle Fire and Medical emergencies. I just wanted to pass on some information...last night at work was very stressful....some of you might know this but there are a lot of people that pick up thier cell phone to call 9-1-1 (in the US) when they are at home and have a Landline (home phone) right next to them. This causes a big problem, if you call from a landline phone the 911 operator automatically has your address on the screen, if you use your cell phone there is a chance the line may get disconnected or the connection is bad and this will delay a response to your emergency, as the 911 operator has to try to figure out the address of where the emegency is...A lot of people think that with the technology of today that cell phones will give an address, NOT TRUE, certian cell phones will give a Lat and Long and a close address but it is not exact......So I am asking next time you have an emergency and you are at home and have a landline phone please use it instead of a cell phone. Of course if you do not have a landline or are not near a landline phone definatly use the cell phone.

OK I am off my soap box now....just had to vent for a few....

Thanks for listening.

Joanna

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I have called 911 from my cell phone before. Never from home though. It has worked just fine.

But yeah, I can see your point about using the cell phone when calling 911 from home.

[junglee069 0]

i called 911 while driving - i was trying to report a freak weaving through 3 lanes of traffic, almost hitting 2-3 people - evidentally they had called as well - as i was driving, i was moving from one city to another - one jurisdiction to another - it took 20 minutes of being on the phone before i got to the correct city - frustrating.

dunno if anyone stopped him, or he ended up plowing into a minivan and killing an entire family - he must have been plastered.

[de_sjiem 0]

I think that's a great point, one that i had never thought about (not that i have a cell phone, but anyways..) Thanks for letting us know!

[almaty 19]

i agree..a good point to remember

[raymaga 25]

That is excellent advice, jkb919. Sometimes it just doesn't dawn on people in a panic, so it's good you brought this to our attention.

I know I won't use my cell phone now as long as I'm near a land line.

Thanks.

[sukie175 0]

worthy of a BUMP

[Kajikit 65]

We don't have a houseline, just mobiles...

[46]

We don't have a houseline, just mobiles...

Exactly. Luckily I only seem to call 9-11 when out of the house.

[daisy16 0]

Thanks for the reminder

[meddykomp 0]

I guess if you have to use a cell, you should be prepared to tell them where you are.

[SteveNanik 0]

thank you for the information

[akdiver 3]

Yeah..like I am going to waste cell phone minutes on 911.

[IAMX 3,055]

ILECs get their information and pass it along much the same as cell phone companies do (MetroPCS and prepaids aside), so I don't know the reason why cell phone providers have not given the customer's information to law enforcement's database in these regards. They both also go through credit agencies which go to government and corporate data mining resources. Given how well they can track your ### in terms of not paying your bill, wonder why they can't give your address info for emergencies.

This problem is also semi-manifested in VOIP and E-911.

I mean, POTS is far more reliable and has it's own power source, so people with old style phones that need no electricity can use it in terms of any sort of emergency, but at the same time some people don't use any at all, so I think telling them not to call on their cell phone is a pretty bad piece of advice. If it's an emergency, there is no bad way to call 911.

Edited September 13, 2008 by SRVT

[akdiver 3]

Given how well they can track your ### in terms of not paying your bill, wonder why they can't give your address info for emergencies.

Yeah, unless you bought a prepaid sim with cash and have never used a credit card to refill it - just using cash to refill it. They have no idea who I am when I make calls with my phone.