How saving $35 a month could cost you even more.

[tavettava]

I called 911 this winter and it went to our state police not my city.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Could be because your AT&T is the former BellSouth, while mine is the former SBC (and before that, Ameritech).

I have no idea, I do know it was Bellsouth for as long as I remember, then AT&T. I have never heard of Ameritech. As far as I know it has only been Bellsouth prior to AT&T.

 

[Mommee]

With taxes our basic phone line (no long distance) is $35/month. I hate paying that much-we made 23 calls last month-but there's no way my youngest could figure out how to use my touch screen phone to call 911 and then recite our address for anyone. Heck, when my oldest went into seizures as a baby I called 911 and blanked when she asked for my location, and I'm an adult. Thank goodness she could read it off the screen and verify that's where I was.

 

[bonoriffic]

As it turns out the cell tower bounced their call to another cell tower which connected them to a 911 dispatcher in a totally different city. Which happened to be a good 50 miles away!

Having worked for a company that develops the actual cell phone tower equipment, I can tell you this is not possible. Cell phone towers have a reasonable radius of about 3 miles. In areas in the middle of nowhere with no obstructions (such as wide open farmland) you can maybe get 10 miles if you have a body of water to help with the signal. Now getting bounced to another tower, without getting technical, implies certain conditions took place and the tower it was "bounced" to would still be have to be reachable by the cell phone. So again, in the most extreme example that tower would be 10 miles away (probably more like 5 miles). Physics says it is impossible to reach a city 50 miles away.

Now it could have reached another cities dispatch center, but not due to the tower the signal came in on. That would be other routing issues, and that happens within the phone companies system. A cell phone tower is not designated to go to a certain city for reasons explained above, you could have someone 7 miles away in another city using that tower, although it is usually geography based. As all cell phones are required to support e-911, the 911 dispatcher who does receive the call would know the general location immediately. (Non GPS equiped phone are compliant, they use triangulation to provide the general location)

Now the 911 dispatcher getting the call to the right center shouldn't be an issue, probably a daily occurence for which they are trained to handle. This whole process should take seconds. That said, things do go wrong, but you are just as likely to have that happen on a landline as you are on a cell phone. People shouldn't fear calling 911 on a cell phone.

 

[lori123]

WOW - I am surprised at how much you all have to pay for a basic phone line. We pay $20 including all taxes with Quest. I'm sure that is is just due to the different prices in different areas - but I would make sure you aren't paying for any call waiting, caller ID type services without knowing it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I called 911 this winter and it went to our state police not my city.

Using a landline or a cellphone?

 

[CandleontheWater]

This is something that DH and I were discussing just the other day. We currently don't have a landline, but I was thinking maybe we could get magicjack for only $19 a year. We would be paying about $40 a month in Virignia for basic service.

So if we got magicjack, it would have the same routing problems that a cell phone does and would not aid us with 911 calls?

If I have a smartphone with GPS, they would be able to triangulate my location if I couldn't tell them?

I don't worry about my toddler not being able to handle my smartphone, at 19 months he is well aware about how to work a touchscreen, and knows how to unlock my phone and start punching away at numbers. As soon as he learns what the numbers are, I think we'll be Ok with him dialing 911!

 

[kristenrice]

Just an FYI for those interested...

I work for a private ambulance service in a major metropolitan area. We handle about 50% of the 911 calls in our area. The other 50% is handled by our competing service. When someone calls 911 in our area, they are first connected to the police department. When it is determined that they are calling about a medical emergency, they are patched through to one of the ambulance dispatch centers. It *is* possible to call our emergency dispatch center directly. If you check your local phone book, there should be a non-emergency number for your local ambulance service. In our case, this number is answered by an emergency medical dispatcher so emergency calls would be handled quicker than calling 911. Our dispatch center has caller ID, but I don't believe we have the capability of GPS location of the caller. That is one disadvantage to calling us direct vs using the 911 system. You have to know where you are or we can't find you.

One thing to note...in our system, when 911 is called for a medical emergency, the caller is patched to a medical dispatcher (the ambulance service). The 911 dispatcher stays on the line until the response priority is determined. Once the medical dispatcher prioritizes the call, the 911 dispatcher dispatches the medical first responders (police and fire department) who are often closer than the ambulance. Meanwhile, the ambulance dispatcher is sending the closest ambulance. Now, if someone calls our "non-emergency" line, the ambulance gets sent first, then the first-response agency is dispatched. This results in a faster response time for the ambulance, but not necessarily a faster response in general. Our MFR's are generally shooting for a 4 minute response time, while the ambulances are posted for a goal of 8 minutes. So, while your ride may arrive sooner by calling direct vs 911, your *help* might be delayed.

I would suggest storing the non-emergency numbers for both your local ambulance and police department into your cell phone if you are worried about your 911 call being "bounced around".

 

[miztressuz]

When considering a line for emergency use you also may want to check how the landline is serviced. When I got my phone service I was looking for phone + DSL for internet. The area provider had upgraded to Fiber Optic and so I could not get DSL in my area but I could get the FiOS. However, as it turns out, they run new phone service through the FiOS as well rather than the good old copper line that you could use when the electricity was out. So they put a 9 or 12 hour battery backup in the house so that if power does go out you can have phone service for a time - however, we recently had at least a 24 hour outage on the FiOS service, so while not being able to use the internet was inconvenient, we couldn't use our phone either. This defeats my purpose of even having a landline as I wanted it for emergencies.

So for me I'm still thinking about ditching the phone line as I hardly ever use it for outgoing calls. I do like to use it for my 'junk' line though but I'm sure I can find a cheap service (Google voice, Skype) to do the same function for less.

 

[anna08]

We've kept our landline for our alarm system and the fact that DS has food allergies, therefore, I want 911 immediately available. I don't want to rely on family or babysitters to have a cellphone that I know works when they are watching him at home.

My FIL has his alarm connected through cell service and it is always having problems connecting to ADT so I don't want to have to deal with that.

I don't know if this is true everywhere, but they say if you call 911 from a landline and can't talk, they can tell where you are and send help. Using a cell phone would require you to be able to speak your location.

Another pro for landline - when your power goes out like it has twice here for several days (tornado, flood), your landline still works. Your cellphone only works until your battery dies.

Unfortunately, it's both bills for us for now. Don't wanna live without either

 

[bonoriffic]

So if we got magicjack, it would have the same routing problems that a cell phone does and would not aid us with 911 calls?

If I have a smartphone with GPS, they would be able to triangulate my location if I couldn't tell them?

MagicJack has you provide your address when setting it up. This address is sent to 911. If you move, use MagicJack in a hotel, or some situation like that then you are not going to have your correct address sent during 911.

For cell phones, if it has GPS your position accurate to at least 50 meters is sent. If you don't have GPS, your position is calculated with triangulation and is accurate to at least 300 meters. Starting this year they will start requiring your location to get even more exact, with exceptions for areas that are physically impossible to do so such as the middle of a forest or in the mountains.

70% of all calls to 911 are from cell phones. There are slight glitches that result, but the overwhelming amount of calls dealt with each day are wireless.

 

[SalandJeff]

When we call 911 from a cell phone here, we are routed to the state police closest to your location at the time. You need to be able to tell them to connect you to your town's police/fire/ambulance (which they do immediately). A landline call to 911 would get me directly to my town's services and they would have my address. It is worth it to me to keep the landline and have at least one corded phone connected.

Based on all the different scenarios folks have posted here, it seems like a good idea to check and see what would actually happened with your cell phone/carrier if you called 911. I'm sure if you call the routine number for your police department, they could advise. Better to be prepared than have to figure it out in an emergency situation.

OP - glad to hear everyone was okay at your niece's.

 

[Judique]

.

Another pro for landline - when your power goes out like it has twice here for several days (tornado, flood), your landline still works. Your cellphone only works until your battery dies.

Car chargers are convenient at times like this.

 

[Starbrite]

The statement above is incorrect, for most states anyway.

Another telecom employee here.....
Do NOT count on being able to dial 911 if you disconnect your service. Its is not always the case. If your service is suspended/cancelled for non-payment (for example), you should still be able to pick up & call 911. If you request that your service be completely disconnected....it's gone. I know at my company, you will not be able to call 911. There is no longer a connection back to the main phone switch.

 

[aprilgail2]

We have a landline, but in the middle of the night in a fire, I would probably grab my cell phone anyways on the way out the door.

Sorry to hear of such a tragedy. 911 even with landlines is a less than good program. We have had 2 really strange and 1 very, very frightening story in our immediate family having used 911 before. I wish we could just call the fire department or ambulance directly.

For an ambulance or fire we call the fire dispatch directly in our town-you don't call 911 for things like that. You could but it takes longer--they send out stickers every year to put by your phones with the direct number so you don't call 911.

WOW - I am surprised at how much you all have to pay for a basic phone line. We pay $20 including all taxes with Quest. I'm sure that is is just due to the different prices in different areas - but I would make sure you aren't paying for any call waiting, caller ID type services without knowing it.

I pay 14.00 a month for the phone line and all the services included like caller id, forwarding etc....unlimited local and long distance

 

[marie1203]

Just an FYI for those interested...

I work for a private ambulance service in a major metropolitan area. We handle about 50% of the 911 calls in our area. The other 50% is handled by our competing service. When someone calls 911 in our area, they are first connected to the police department. When it is determined that they are calling about a medical emergency, they are patched through to one of the ambulance dispatch centers. It *is* possible to call our emergency dispatch center directly. If you check your local phone book, there should be a non-emergency number for your local ambulance service. In our case, this number is answered by an emergency medical dispatcher so emergency calls would be handled quicker than calling 911. Our dispatch center has caller ID, but I don't believe we have the capability of GPS location of the caller. That is one disadvantage to calling us direct vs using the 911 system. You have to know where you are or we can't find you.

One thing to note...in our system, when 911 is called for a medical emergency, the caller is patched to a medical dispatcher (the ambulance service). The 911 dispatcher stays on the line until the response priority is determined. Once the medical dispatcher prioritizes the call, the 911 dispatcher dispatches the medical first responders (police and fire department) who are often closer than the ambulance. Meanwhile, the ambulance dispatcher is sending the closest ambulance. Now, if someone calls our "non-emergency" line, the ambulance gets sent first, then the first-response agency is dispatched. This results in a faster response time for the ambulance, but not necessarily a faster response in general. Our MFR's are generally shooting for a 4 minute response time, while the ambulances are posted for a goal of 8 minutes. So, while your ride may arrive sooner by calling direct vs 911, your *help* might be delayed.

I would suggest storing the non-emergency numbers for both your local ambulance and police department into your cell phone if you are worried about your 911 call being "bounced around".

This! I wrote this when the OP posted in the community board. We have our local numbers save in our cell phones.And if my house was on fire the first thing for me will be take my animals out not stay in the house to make the phone call.

 

[Swan4Me]

Car chargers are convenient at times like this.

But wouldnt the engine have to be running?

 

[tavettava]

Using a landline or a cellphone?

Using my cell phone, sorry forgot to add that.

 

[pyrxtc]

I have the local fire and police programmed into my cell and would be calling that.

 

[Tistal]

From FCC's website:

The FCC’s basic 911 rules require wireless service providers to transmit all 911 calls to a PSAP, regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the provider’s service or not.

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/wireless-911-services

Also, I'm surprised that no one suggested it (or maybe someone did and I skimmed over it), but I would hope whoever was charged for this calls the cell company and attempts to have the charge removed.