And outside of the large metropolitan areas, Bell County residents are better off than residents living in other areas of the state, according to Kelli Merriweather, director of programs with the Commission on State Emergency Communications.
In Bell County only cell customers of Cingular and Alltel who dial 911 are assured to have their location revealed to an emergency dispatcher. People with other cell providers who dial 911 may have only their cell phone number revealed to the dispatcher, which could present a problem for emergency responders if a person can’t describe their location.
“The good news is that the majority of people who have cell phones in this area have one of those two carriers,” said Lisa Dillon, 911 regional coordinator.
Fixing the problem of upgrading the nation’s emergency wireless infrastructures is something the Federal Communications Commission has been overseeing since the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999.
Ms. Merriweather said by 2002 all counties in Texas had the capability to view the phone number from a 911 call made with a cell phone. The FCC calls this Phase One.
Getting emergency operators in each separate entity to view the location of a cell call, Phase Two, has proven to be more complicated and costly.
“The FCC requires wireless carries to implement Phase Two only after 911 call centers can prove they are capable of implementing it - it’s a process that involves a lot of hardware and manpower,” Ms. Merriweather said.
The switch requires GPS mapping software with up-to-date maps, which has proved to be a major challenge in many rural counties, Ms. Merriweather said.
Bell County implemented Phase Two at its communications center this past summer, said Dalton Cross, director of the center. After Bell County implemented Phase Two, cell carriers that didn’t apply for an extension had six months to upgrade the technology on their towers so that the system works properly.
Once the companies have upgraded their cell towers, Mrs. Dillon works with them to test them to make sure everything is working properly.
“We don’t allow them to go live until they have been tested,” Ms. Merriweather said. “The only thing worse than it not working is that it is working incorrectly and sends information to the incorrect place.”
While all carriers in Bell County are expected to provide GPS coordinates to emergency operators by the end of this year, the outlook is not as good in rural areas of Texas.
Right now, 236 out of 350 answering centers in Texas are Phase Two capable with a goal of more than 300 being Phase Two capable within two years, Ms. Merriweather said.
She said the state has appropriated $12 million in funding to assist with Phase Two implementation in Texas over the next two years.
“It takes a lot of funding at the state level and typically that funding is allocated out to regions according to population,” Ms. Merriweather said. “That’s OK when maintaining a system, but when you’re trying to do something new it makes it difficult.”
In 2003, 40 percent of the 911 calls fielded by the Bell County Communications Center were wireless. Cross said now 60 to 65 percent of the calls are wireless.
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