Cell phones to act as GPS
Remember that scene in the James Bond classic “Goldfinger” in which our super-spy hero flipped a button on the dash of his Aston Martin and began tracking another car that appeared as a blinking blip on a bright green radar screen?
It may have been pure fantasy in 1964, but thanks to today’s constantly evolving Global Positioning System technology, people who use cell phones to make 911 calls in
“As of this week we are 100 percent phased in across the county with this new Phase II wireless technology,” said Robin Jones, director of
“Even travelers driving through the county who might not even know what road they are on can now have their location accurately identified,” Jones said.
The new system will work in conjunction with the established Phase I technology that provides cellular callback numbers and cell tower locations to emergency dispatchers.
“It used to be that if someone called for help and hung up, precious minutes would pass before we even knew what cell company they were using,” Jones said. “Trying to pinpoint a certain call being made at a certain time was pretty hard to do. This will eliminate a lot of that.”
Paid for with money appropriated by a bill mandated by the Federal Communications Commission and approved by state legislators, the new system is designed to provide cell phone users with the same service previously afforded to people using traditional landlines.
The bulk of the costs were borne by a 32-cent fee collected from every cell phone bill in
While the Phase II technology was still being tested, the U.S. Coast Guard received a call from a
“With our equipment we used latitude and longitude to get his exact location,” Jones said.
Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com
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Filed by February 29th, 2008 in Local and State.
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