In St Clair County
The following cellular carriers are now providing Phase II Wireless service in St Clair County:
- Cingular Wireless
- Sprint/Nextel
- T-Mobile
- Verizon Wireless
- US Cellular
This means that 911 telecommunicators in St Clair County will know the location of those calling 911 from their cell phones. When someone dials 911 from a cell phone, the location of the caller will be displayed on a digital mapping system in the 911 communications center, and the system will identify the appropriate fire, law, and medical responders based on the caller's location.
In October of 2001, St Clair County became the first 911 system in the country to provide this service. It is believed that St Clair County is also the first in the country to complete implementation of Phase II Wireless service with all of its wireless carriers.
FCC Mandates
Since 1996, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a series of orders in an attempt to regulate the implementation of Enhanced 911 for wireless service. The goal being to improve the quality and reliability of emergency services for cell phone users by providing emergency service personnel with sufficient information to locate and assist callers in a timely manner.
- Basic Wireless 911 Service requires wireless carriers to transmit wireless 911 calls to a public safety answering point, regardless of whether the call is placed from a current wireless service subscriber. It does not, however, require the wireless carriers to provide any specific data about the number or location that the person is calling from.
- Phase I Wireless E911 Service mandates that wireless carriers provide two important pieces of information to the public safety answering point receiving the 911 call: (1) the telephone number from which the 911 call originated and (2) the location of the cell site or base station that received the call. This information enhances the timely response of emergency services by providing some general location information about where the call was received and allowing the call taker to re-establish connection with the caller, if necessary. These requirements are effective as of April 1, 1998 or within six months of request by the designated public safety answering point.
- Phase II Wireless E911 Service requires that wireless carriers provide Automatic Location Identification with implementation beginning October 1, 2001. The accuracy requirements for this service are 50 meters for 67 percent of calls and 150 meters for 95 percent of calls with hand-based solutions or 100 meters for 67 percent of calls and 300 meters for 95 percent of calls with network-based solutions.
Official Documents, Reports, and Orders
FCC 2nd Memorandum Opinion and Order, 1999- Seeks to hasten the implementation of Wireless E911 Services
FCC 3rd Report and Order, 1999- Establishes Phase I and II Wireless E911 regulations enabling wireless callers to obtain emergency services more efficiently
FCC 4th Report and Order, 2000- Ensures persons with hearing and speech disabilities using text telephone devices will be able to make 911 emergency calls over digital wireless systems
FCC 5th Report and Order, 2001- Discusses appropriate transition times for implementation of 911 dialing in areas where it is not currently in use
Hatfield Report, 2002- Outlines technical and operational issues impacting the provision of Wireless E911 services
For additional information, please visit the Federal Communications Commission E911 page or the NENA Wireless 911 page