It's been a long wait for the first implementation of advanced location services for wireless E911 callers--almost four years. But now there really is a working Phase II system in the United States--St. Clair County (Ill.). The county beat out Lake County (Ind.) and the state of Rhode Island to claim the "First Phase II" award! updated
The St. Clair system is a network-based Phase II system using gear from Grayson Wireless, and accepting calls only from Verizon wireless customers whose radio signal hits antenna sites located within St. Clair County. By the way, they later added Sprint PCS customers to the Phase II system using A-GPS/AFLT technology.
The second jurisdiction with an operating Phase II system was Lake County (Ind.), also using Grayson Wireless for Verizon customers.
The third jurisdiction with Phase II was the state of Rhode Island, using Samsung handsets equipped with assisted-GPS technology on the Sprint PCS network to transmit location information to PSAPs. Their service officially began Oct. 26, 2001, and intelligently routes wireless 911 calls to PSAPs based on the caller's reported location.
[press release from Intrado Inc.]
Intrado's Technology for Wireless 9-1-1 Supports First Phase II Deployment
Wireless Carriers, Public Safety Agencies Rely on Technology Leader to Meet Phase II Requirements
October 22, 2001 (Boulder, Colo.) -Intrado Inc. (Nasdaq NM: TRDO) today
announced a major milestone in the improvement of 9-1-1 emergency services
for wireless telephone subscribers. The nation's leading provider of sophisticated
solutions that identify, manage and deliver mission-critical information
for telecommunications providers and public safety organizations is supplying
the technology and services necessary for deployment of the first wireless
Phase II service, now available to wireless carriers and Public Safety Answering
Points (PSAPs) serving St. Clair County, Illinois.
Wireless carriers serving St. Clair County now have a cost-effective, efficient solution for providing Phase II 9-1-1 service to their subscribers. St. Clair County's deployment relies on Intrado's end-to-end Phase II transaction services, which includes E2 interface technology that allows the PSAP to access a caller's precise location data whenever it is needed. The technology and services provided by Intrado meet telecommunications industry standards and are compatible with every wireless carrier and any location determination equipment. St. Clair's deployment is supported by SignalSoft's mobile positioning center technology, the Geometrix location system developed by Grayson Wireless and the telephone network and 9-1-1 system of the local telephone service provider. Initially, one major wireless carrier is providing the improved 9-1-1 service to subscribers in the county.
"Many people who call 9-1-1 from a wireless phone can't tell us exactly where they are," said Norm Forshee, 9-1-1 coordinator for St. Clair County. "Intrado's unique technology and services will allow us to retrieve a caller's location data immediately, so we can send help to the right place and potentially save more lives."
"As the wireless industry reaches a turning point in its provision of 9-1-1 service, Intrado is taking the lead in meeting the requirements for Phase I and Phase II deployments," said George Heinrichs, CEO of Intrado. "We have a heritage of being the first to develop offerings that improve 9-1-1 in this country. The St. Clair deployment of Phase II demonstrates our continuing commitment to helping wireless carriers, local telephone service providers and public safety agencies meet the challenges involved in providing 9-1-1 service."
Wireless phones offer the benefit of improved safety and security to 123 million subscribers in the U.S. today, but wireless carriers face immense cost pressures and demanding deadlines involved with providing effective 9-1-1 service. Intrado leads the industry in providing the best deployment services and has reliably demonstrated the ability to support wireless carriers with a robust offering of resource options being utilized to deploy Phase I 9-1-1 service for 23 customers, including seven of the top 10 wireless carriers. Additionally, the company has been selected by four wireless carriers to provide Phase II services. Intrado is now providing location services to 11.2 million wireless subscribers, clearly demonstrating the company's leadership in wireless 9-1-1 services.
The company's advanced wireless industry offerings support emergency response and commercial location-based services and provide the necessary infrastructure support to meet all requirements for 9-1-1 services. Offerings include end-to-end services to facilitate interconnection from the wireless carrier system to the existing 9-1-1 network; assessment services to determine the most efficient plan for deployment; comprehensive 9-1-1 system testing; the industry's most comprehensive and accurate PSAP database to reliably deliver calls and caller information; and round-the-clock support from Intrado's technical experts.
[press release from St. Clair County]
St. Clair County, Illinois, first in U.S. to Deploy Phase II Wireless 9-1-1 Service
Advanced 9-1-1 Service Pinpoints Location of Wireless Callers
St. Clair, County IL. (October 20, 2001)---The St. Clair County Emergency Telephone System Board (ETSB) today announced that through the cooperation of Ameritech, Verizon, Intrado, Grayson Wireless, GeoComm, Applied Technology Solutions, St. Clair County is the first in the nation to deploy wireless Phase II services. Now, Verizon wireless customers who call 9-1-1 from any location in St. Clair County will be the first in the U.S. to benefit from a new, advanced emergency response system.
Several major highways traverse St. Clair County, the home of Scott Air Force Base. Since the first of this year, the county has received more than 56,000 9-1-1 calls from wireless phones, representing 44 percent of all 9-1-1 calls in the area. Previously wireless calls represented just 20 percent of the total calls, but now the percentage is growing rapidly as the popularity of wireless phones increases.
"This implementation is a major milestone in our ability to save lives," said Normal H. Forshee, executive director of the ETSB. "For the first time, Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) will receive precise location data of the wireless caller, allowing help to be sent more quickly and efficiently. There have been many technological challenges in deploying Phase II service. Only through the commitment of all of the parties involved have we been able to reach this incredible accomplishment. I hope this demonstrates to everyone in public safety and industry that Phase II is a reality."
"Recently, we received a call reporting a bad traffic accident between a school bus and two cars," said Tina Joaquin, shift supervisor at CENCom, the PSAP that receives the county's wireless 9-1-1 calls. "Unfortunately, the caller was just passing through ton the highway and was unable to tell us exactly where he was." As a result, the PSAP had to wait for more calls before there was enough information to send help.
In most instances, when a 9-1-1 call is made from a landline telephone, the PSAP immediately receives the caller's location with the call. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) developed requirements, to be phase in by PSAPs and communications companies, designed to ensure that wireless callers have the same high quality of service available to them.
Having previously implemented the FCC's Phase I requirements, which identify the cell site where the call originates, St. Clair County is now the first in the country to employ a network-based solution that satisfies the FCC's Phase II requirements for pinpointing a caller's location within a radius of 100 meters for two-thirds of the calls and within 300 meters for 95 percent of the calls.
"We are proud to take part in St. Clair County's efforts to ensure the best possible emergency services to its citizens," said George Heinrichs, CEO of Intrado. Intrado provides the services that route the 9-1-1 call to the appropriate PSAP and provides for the successful delivery of the wireless caller's x,y location coordinates to the PSAP. "This is just the beginning of a process we are joining in with communications centers and public safety agencies across the country that will have a major impact on public safety."
Back in 1973, when he began working in the public safety industry, Forshee "walked the beat" as a policeman in St. Louis. "Since that time, I've served as 9-1-1 coordinator in three states, and the basic job of getting help out;to the public has remained the same," he said. "But the technology required to do that job has changed dramatically. Thanks to the support of the ETSB, our County Board Chairman John Baricevic and our partnership with dedicated, experienced carriers and emergency services providers, St. Clair County is now putting to work the best technology available.
Information About St. Clair County
The county has a population of 265,200 residents and covers 664 square miles adjacent to St. Louis (Mo.). It has 31 municipalities, and is on the Interstate 94 route from St. Louis to Mt. Vernon (Ill.) in mid-state. Major cities are the county seat is Belleville (pop. 41,000), East St. Louis (pop. 31,500), O'Fallon (pop 21,000), and Fairview Heights (pop.14,000). As one press release mentions, the county is home to Scott Air Force Base (pop. 19,000).
Check the county's Web site for complete information, the Census Bureau page on the county for population facts, or the ETSB Web site.
[press release from GeoComm Corp.]
GeoComm Implements the World's First Complete Enhanced 9-1-1 caller location mapping system
St. Cloud (Minn.): GeoComm Corporation, working on behalf of St. Clair County, Illinois has implemented the world's first active complete Enhanced 9-1-1 caller location mapping system. This system, known as GeoLynx provides an automatic graphic depiction of the location of any caller to 9-1-1, whether from a traditional wired phone, or a cellular or PCS phone.
Since cellular phones were first introduced in 1984, the inherent inability of emergency 9-1-1 operators to be able to know the location from which cellular 911 calls are being placed has been a major problem and has contributed to the loss of numerous lives throughout the USA. Unlike traditional wired phones, for which the caller's name, address, community and police, fire and emergency responders are displayed once the 911 call is answered, with cell phones it has been impossible for any information of any value to appear with a cellular 911 call.
In 1996 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an order that required the nation's many cellular phone companies by 2001 to begin to upgrade the capabilities of their systems to provide this information in two distinct phases. It was not until late 2001 that the carriers were required to reach the ultimate goal, that of providing the cellular 911 caller's actual physical location (their latitude and longitude) to the 911 operators to within a few dozen yards of accuracy.
Actual "Screen print" from a 911 operator workstation screen in St. Clair County, IL. The GeoComm GeoLynx map is in the upper left portion of the screen and the wireless 911 Phase 2 caller has been plotted where the red "Stick man" is on the map.
As early as 1996, GeoComm began installing their Geographic Information System (GIS) based GeoLynx system for plotting the location of wired 911 callers in County 911 dispatch centers throughout the Midwest. By 1998, GeoComm had installed their first system to plot the "Phase 1" cellular 911 calls. This FCC required 1st phase has the carriers providing call data enabling the plotting of the land mass covered by the specific cell tower through which a given 911 call was initially processed. In some rural cases, this land mass is hundreds of square miles, while in dense urban areas it is as small as a few square blocks. In both examples, while finding a desperate cellular 911 caller has been somewhat facilitated compared to having no idea where they are calling from, it is far from the ideal envisioned in FCC required Phase 2. This wireless carrier required Phase 1 capability, while generally available in some states and metro areas, has lagged quite badly in many states. Minnesota and Wisconsin are two of the states with very limited implementation of even this rudimentary Phase 1 system by the many wireless carriers.
A GeoLynx "Phase 1" depiction showing the coverage area (shaded in yellow) for the cell site and sector through which a Phase 1 wireless 911 call was processed).
In early 2001, GeoComm installed the GeoLynx system in St. Clair County, Illinois in their County operated CenCom 911dispatch center in Belleville, IL. (911 Coordinator for the County is Norm Forshee @ 618-277-7316 or @ nforshee911@norcom2000.com). From the outset the system was plotting the location of their many wired 911 calls. By March 2001, the system was plotting thousands of Phase 1 cellular 911 caller locations. Finally, through the hard work of one wireless carrier (Verizon Wireless) and the County's 911 service provider (the local telephone company Ameritech) and GeoComm, Phase 2 wireless 911 service became a reality for persons who place 911 calls in St. Clair County which are processed through the Verizon Wireless network there. This is the first place in the USA where such a system is up and running and is processing live 911 calls.
The instant the "cellular 911 line" rings at the CenCom 911 Center in the basement of the St. Clair County Jail in Belleville, the 911 Operator answers it and instantly sees a 911 data printout with the caller's location and call back number. This data is then instantly plotted on the GeoLynx map and the 911 operator sees the caller's location on that map.
Several "how close is the location?" tests have been run and the location plotted is often within a few dozen feet of where a caller is known to be standing.
GeoComm has dozens of customer sites now around the USA who are eagerly awaiting the complete enabling of their GeoLynx systems as well. Many are now using GeoLynx only to plot wired 911 call locations, but as soon as the wireless carriers in their area comply with the FCC rules requiring both Phase 1 and Phase 2 capabilities, these 911 centers will be ready to help their emergency callers even better.
About GeoComm: Founded in 1995, GeoComm has over 50 employees located at the HQ facility in St. Cloud, MN as well as field offices in Minneapolis, Western Wisconsin, NorthwesternIllinois, metropolitan Atlanta, Central Missouri and the Omaha, Nebraska area. In addition to developing the GeoLynx software product line, it is also heavily involved in all tasks related to the implementation of Enhanced 9-1-1 systems, to include addressing, GIS mapping, and 911 network and equipment design consultation services. Our website is located at: http://www.geo-comm.com
For further information contact:
Tom Grones
GeoComm Corp.
605 W. St. Germain Street
St. Cloud, MN (320) 240-0040
or tom@geo-comm.com
[press release from Sprint PCS]
December 24, 2001
Launch Makes Sprint PCS the First Wireless Carrier to Operate a Handset-Based Location Technology
KANSAS CITY, Mo.--Sprint , which operates the largest all-digital, all-PCS nationwide network, today announced the launch of E911 Phase II services on its network in Rhode Island. These services allow Sprint PCS customers in Rhode Island to automatically send their location information to emergency dispatchers when using a Global Positioning System (GPS) phone. The launch marks the first availability of E911 Phase II services on the Sprint PCS network and makes Sprint PCS the first wireless carrier in the country to offer this service with handset-based location technology.
"More than 139,000 calls to E911 are made each year from wireless phones," said Charles E. Levine, Sprint PCS president. "This solution offers Sprint PCS customers in Rhode Island tremendous benefit in times of their greatest need—when calling 911 on their Sprint PCS phone."
Sprint PCS was the first and only wireless carrier to meet the Federal Communication Commission’s deadline of selling a GPS-enabled handset when it introduced the Sprint PCS SPH-N300 by Samsung on October 1, 2001. The SPH-N300 works today nationwide as a Sprint PCS Phone and supports E911 emergency services available in Rhode Island. The handset is designed to support E911 emergency services as they are rolled out with local public safety agencies on a market-by-market basis, and future location-based services as they become available on the Sprint PCS nationwide network.
E911 services cannot be deployed until both the public safety agency requesting the service and the local telephone company operating the 911 system have installed the upgrades necessary to support this service. Sprint PCS is using a handset-based GPS solution to fulfill the requirements of the Federal Communication Commission’s E911 Phase II mandate. Under the mandate all wireless carriers were required, within six months of a request from a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), to be able to locate 67 percent of 911 callers within 50 meters using a handset-based solution or 100 meters using a network-based solution beginning on October 1, 2001.
Because of technology and administrative hurdles, Sprint PCS, along with the other major U.S. wireless carriers, was granted a conditional waiver to this mandate on October 5, 2001 extending the deadlines for compliance.
[Web material fromCML Emergency Services]
CML sites first in U.S. to deploy Wireless Phase II E9-1-1
CML Emergency Services is pleased and very proud to announce that two of our customers - the State of Rhode Island, and St. Clair County, Illinois -- are the first public safety answering points in the U.S. to successfully deploy Phase II wireless E9-1-1.
Both sites use Sentinel 9-1-1 software, with call delivery and routing handled by ECS-1000 ANI/ALI controllers. In the case of Rhode Island, Sprint PCS, microDATA, and Verizon collaborated on the project. In St. Clair County, other partners included Ameritech, Verizon, Intrado, Grayson Wireless, GeoComm, and Applied Technology Solutions.
"Providing Phase II wireless 9-1-1 has been a major and challenging goal for the 9-1-1 industry and communications providers," says Jeff Robertson, President and CEO of CML. "We're very proud to be a part of the solution, and to work with other service providers and 9-1-1 professionals to deliver this very important service. It shows how much we can achieve by working together for a common goal.
"Special thanks, in particular, go to Ray LaBelle in Rhode Island and Norm Forshee in St. Clair County for their determination, vision, and unfailing commitment to public safety. Congratulations to you and your team."
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