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911 Survey Says Most are Uninformed about Cellphone Caller Location Technology

Two-thirds of those surveyed thought they could be located to their block when using a cellphone to call 911.

A survey conducted this month by the Find Me 911 Coalition found that most consumers still believe that if they dial 911 on their cellphones the operator can find their location to send help.

Two-thirds of the more than 1,000 people surveyed wrongly thought their direct location could be found. That’s a large gap in the public’s expectations and FCC regulations that do not require cellphone carriers to provide an accurate location for calls inside of buildings, according to the Find Me 911 Coalition. Just 6 percent of those surveyed knew that information location could be detected at a “neighborhood level” at best.

“If you call 911 on your cellphone inside or in an urban canyon, the carrier’s technologies will often fail to accurately locate that call,” Jamie Barnett, director of the Find Me 911 Coalition, said via a press release. “Technologies exist now that can find callers indoors and save lives.”

Results from the survey include:
 

  • Most think all wireless 911 calls can be found: By a 7-1 margin, respondents thought that emergency responders could find their cellphone's location if they dialed 911 (59 percent to 8.5 percent).
     
  • Indoor callers think 911 locations are accurate to the block or house level: Two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) said that cellphone companies would share location information accurate at least to their block, and 55 percent believed it would be accurate at least to their house if they called 911 while at home.
     
  • Cellphones are most common way to reach 911: Of respondents who have dialed 911, 57 percent most recently used a cellphone, not a traditional land line.
     
  • Half of 911 calls come from indoors or urban canyons: On their last 911 call from a cellphone, half of respondents were inside a physical building (42 percent) or in an urban canyon (8 percent), where GPS technology is not reliable.
     
  • Most were deeply concerned over the lack of indoor location requirements: More than two-thirds of respondents (69 percent) said they would be extremely or very concerned if they learned that cellphone companies were not required to provide an accurate indoor location to emergency responders.
     
  • Proposed FCC rule is vital to public safety: 83 percent said the proposed rule is critically or very important to public safety in their communities.
     
  • The FCC should implement requirements of the rule within two years: Four-fifths (79 percent) said the FCC should begin enforcing the rule within two years, with nearly half (46 percent) saying the FCC should begin enforcement immediately.
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