Calling 911 from a cellphone is different from calling 911 from a landline. This can translate to longer response times. Note: By landline, I mean a real landline, not VOIP, the use of which can cause a problem, if the service even supports E911.
One of the differences is where the call is routed. In some areas of California, an operator (or is it a dispatcher?) at a highway patrol comunications center will pick up the call. He or she must decide whether to transfer the call to local authorities. They usually will, if the emergency you're reporting is not on a highway. If they do transfer the call, an operator or dispatcher at the municipal or county emrgency communications center will pick up the phone and ask you what they need to know about the emergency. This, as you can imagine, means you'll have to wait longer to get help.
If you are in a place where the highway patrol does not handle calls coming from your municipality or county, or neighboring municipalities or counties, your call could be forwarded to a neighboring municipality or county's communications center. This is because wireless carriers typically connect 911 calls to a communications center that has jurisdiction over the area where the tower is located. There was a story in the news once. A Bethesda, Maryland family's house caught on fire. A neighbor called 911 on a cellphone. Unfortunately, the neighborhood is in an area where cell phones on that network are connected to either a tower in Bethesda or a tower in Washington, D.C, and the neighbor's phone was connected to the tower in D.C. So someone in D.C picked up the 911 call. The neighbor gave the person the address, and the person sent the D.C fire department to a D.C building with the same address.
Another difference is in how dispatchers and operators find you if you can't speak, and how long it takes to do so. Landlines are tied to an address. If you call 911 from a landline and can't give the address, the dispatcher can send a query to a database to get your address. This all happens pretty quickly. Because cell phones are portable, however, it can take at least ten minutes to get your location, if the technology he has available allows him to. The FCC set up two phases to help dispatchers find the location of the caller. Let me explain:
Phase 1: After you call, the dispatcher has information like your name and phone number. They then query a database, which gives them the address of the tower you are connected to and the cell sector your phone is in. Wireless carriers have 6 minutes to give the dispatcher this information.
Phase 2: The dispatcher then tries to narrow the range of possible locations. To do this, the dispatcher will request the approximate location from the wireless carrier. (I don't know why the dispatcher waits until he gets a response to his initial query. Maybe it's because some phones still don't support phase 2.) The network will either use the device's built-in location services or the phone's distance to other cell towers to determine the location.
One of the differences is where the call is routed. In some areas of California, an operator (or is it a dispatcher?) at a highway patrol comunications center will pick up the call. He or she must decide whether to transfer the call to local authorities. They usually will, if the emergency you're reporting is not on a highway. If they do transfer the call, an operator or dispatcher at the municipal or county emrgency communications center will pick up the phone and ask you what they need to know about the emergency. This, as you can imagine, means you'll have to wait longer to get help.
If you are in a place where the highway patrol does not handle calls coming from your municipality or county, or neighboring municipalities or counties, your call could be forwarded to a neighboring municipality or county's communications center. This is because wireless carriers typically connect 911 calls to a communications center that has jurisdiction over the area where the tower is located. There was a story in the news once. A Bethesda, Maryland family's house caught on fire. A neighbor called 911 on a cellphone. Unfortunately, the neighborhood is in an area where cell phones on that network are connected to either a tower in Bethesda or a tower in Washington, D.C, and the neighbor's phone was connected to the tower in D.C. So someone in D.C picked up the 911 call. The neighbor gave the person the address, and the person sent the D.C fire department to a D.C building with the same address.
Another difference is in how dispatchers and operators find you if you can't speak, and how long it takes to do so. Landlines are tied to an address. If you call 911 from a landline and can't give the address, the dispatcher can send a query to a database to get your address. This all happens pretty quickly. Because cell phones are portable, however, it can take at least ten minutes to get your location, if the technology he has available allows him to. The FCC set up two phases to help dispatchers find the location of the caller. Let me explain:
Phase 1: After you call, the dispatcher has information like your name and phone number. They then query a database, which gives them the address of the tower you are connected to and the cell sector your phone is in. Wireless carriers have 6 minutes to give the dispatcher this information.
Phase 2: The dispatcher then tries to narrow the range of possible locations. To do this, the dispatcher will request the approximate location from the wireless carrier. (I don't know why the dispatcher waits until he gets a response to his initial query. Maybe it's because some phones still don't support phase 2.) The network will either use the device's built-in location services or the phone's distance to other cell towers to determine the location.
