Dear Jim,
Someone wrote about E911 phones and GPS tracking. I worked in that
industry, with that specific issue and I can provide some facts.
#1 The chip does not function unless you either Dial 911 or turn it to Location
On, which shows a circle with a plus sign through it and two end parentheses
to its right. It is common to see the circle-plus sign without the parentheses.
Check your manual to verify this. It will list this under "icons" or
E911. Phones come with them preset to "911 only", not "on".
Phones from Nextel/Sprint or using location based services must have the GPS
turned on to work.
#2 Its not real GPS. It does not talk to satellites. Its just triangulating
on the company towers. This gives an accuracy of +/- 3 feet but its main purpose
is to get you to the nearest 911 call center in the event you dial 911. That's
about it.
#3 While it is possible the phone operating systems could be fibbing and the
Location service could be on when it says its off, that is unlikely since it
would affect battery life, require violation of customer privacy rights, risks
lawsuits when exposed, and requires a conspiracy to accomplish, the black helicopter
kind. I'm not a fan of conspiracies since humans are very good at bungling
basic stuff and very bad at keeping secrets. It is far more likely that it
really is off, just like it says.
#4 Yes, there really IS a law enacted by FCC back on Sept 12, 2001 that required
these chips to be mandated into phones by July 1, 2005 and all non GPS phones
taken out of service by the end of 2006. Some of my former customers had received
letters from their carriers and verified by the FCC to this effect.
#5 There's also the secondary issue that older phones typically have stronger
and now illegal analog signal amplifiers which when running analog can block
more than 720 digital calls. This has been a real waste of bandwidth and the
FCC has been after the cell companies to get them off the market and into the
garbage bins. The companies have handled it by offering incentives to change
out the phone for a newer model with E911 and usually all digital. All digital
phones don't hog bandwidth, don't block other's calls, but don't really work
in the boonies either. For the boonies, you need a Tri-Mode phone. This means
digital and analog backup. You also need an extendable antenna. A stub antenna
is nearly worthless in analog areas because the signal won't propagate
well. Many phones have plugs for antenna extension kits, the kind you can
mount on a car roof and a small cable and jack to plug into the phone. Those
work well, BTW.
#6 The boonies are mostly analog until Jan 1 2008, when all analog cell service
is turned OFF, permanently, another FCC mandate. This means that either these
sites get upgraded to digital or they lose their licenses, probably auctioned
off and end up with big carriers. The carriers will do a cost study and decide
for themselves whether said boonies are worth converting to digital or if they'll
just let them die with no signal. Some sites may not get bought and those regions
may lose cell service entirely. Cell companies are very greedy, keep in mind.
If they can't make a huge profit, they won't do it at all. A small profit or
slow profit is not within their timescale. It is likely that many rural areas
with low populations will lose cell service entirely.
#7 Cell phones use lots of electrical power. This means that in blackouts,
while they do have generators, those must be topped off. In a survival situation
or one of slowly deteriorating
conditions they will work, at first. The more phones in digital, the
less issues with blocked service. After spending lots of money and time topping
off tanks
it is highly likely, if the conditions persist, that cell companies will start
charging more money for calls made during blackouts than ones when the power
is on. Expect to have to pay a hefty premium and overage rates for calls made
during blackouts. The companies have not released any plans for this, but they
already produced emergency blackout kits for their retail stores last summer,
as if they fully expect to operate when the power is out, which is particularly
weird since you can't activate or change service without computer access to
the network switches. Hope this info helps. Best, - Marshall
