Cell Phone 911 calls know where do you stand

[Wayne Smith]

An allied question - If I have my cell phone with a 757 area code, and go on vacation to NC or the other side of the country, where does my cell phone dial 911 - the area I am in or my local 757 911? I've not had to make an emergency call in such a situation.

[MaryB]

An allied question - If I have my cell phone with a 757 area code, and go on vacation to NC or the other side of the country, where does my cell phone dial 911 - the area I am in or my local 757 911? I've not had to make an emergency call in such a situation.

It will try to use your phones GPS data if it has it, then it resorts to the nearest cell tower(s) and of they have triangulated a fix on you. I only have 1 cell tower in range so they can not get a fix on me that way. And I keep GPS turned off because it is a battery pig.

My "landline" was thru my cell provider, it went to the local office then converted to the internet...

[Bmi48219]

We got rid of our landline a year ago. Other than for occasional local or toll free calls we didn’t use it. Our reason for keeping it and paying $60 / month was it connected our alarm system to the sheriff’s office.
About 15 months ago I awoke at 2:30 am to see two sheriffs at our door. They were responding to a 911 call (with no report) from our address. We hadn’t dialed that call. I thought maybe the alarm company had called them but ADT told me they couldn’t place a call from my telephone, only from their office. A few days later the same thing but in the early afternoon. And a week later the same at 1:30 am. That time they insisted on waking up my wife to make sure she was OK.
Even crazier, the landline connection sucked. For months more often then not you’d get nothing but static when you picked up the handset. I demonstrated this to the sheriffs on each occasion. AT&T had been trying to diagnose that trouble for months (months I refused to pay for). After several repair techs had tried, one finally found the problem in a phone connection box several lots away. There was a short in our line that intermittently dialed random numbers. I guess after so many shorts it finally hit a 911 sequence, sending that signal to the sheriff, three different times.
A year ago ADT gave our neighborhood a no cost upgrade to wireless transmitters. The battery lasts 72 to 96 hours in the event of a power outage. And you can set or disengage the alarm remotely.
So yeah, our landline worked only too well for 911 calls.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

My Landline provider (CenturyLink) has many options to keep it cheap.
I signed up for measured service (local) and I never use it for long distance, if I do use the landline for a long Distance call, I use a calling card (1.2¢ min).
That keeps the monthly landline bill at $21 a month.

[AlaskaMike]

When my landline hit $85 a month it got shut off. Phone can be charged by vehicles, spare car jumper, solar and portable battery assisted chargers.

Sorry, I think you misunderstood. The issue isn't that your cell phone might run out of juice. The issue is that it's very rare for a cell site (the infrastructure your cell phone talks through, and which ties into the wireline telephone network) to have a generator. They typically only have enough of a UPS (battery backup) to last a short time to cover the more frequent short duration power outages.

You can keep your cell phone charged using any of 100 different means, but when the cell sites start going down that cell phone becomes useless.

[deces]

We got rid of our landline a year ago. Other than for occasional local or toll free calls we didn’t use it. Our reason for keeping it and paying $60 / month was it connected our alarm system to the sheriff’s office.
About 15 months ago I awoke at 2:30 am to see two sheriffs at our door. They were responding to a 911 call (with no report) from our address. We hadn’t dialed that call. I thought maybe the alarm company had called them but ADT told me they couldn’t place a call from my telephone, only from their office. A few days later the same thing but in the early afternoon. And a week later the same at 1:30 am. That time they insisted on waking up my wife to make sure she was OK.
Even crazier, the landline connection sucked. For months more often then not you’d get nothing but static when you picked up the handset. I demonstrated this to the sheriffs on each occasion. AT&T had been trying to diagnose that trouble for months (months I refused to pay for). After several repair techs had tried, one finally found the problem in a phone connection box several lots away. There was a short in our line that intermittently dialed random numbers. I guess after so many shorts it finally hit a 911 sequence, sending that signal to the sheriff, three different times.
A year ago ADT gave our neighborhood a no cost upgrade to wireless transmitters. The battery lasts 72 to 96 hours in the event of a power outage. And you can set or disengage the alarm remotely.
So yeah, our landline worked only too well for 911 calls.

They sure thought they had you.

[higgins]

I've called 911 a few times because of wrecks nearby. The first thing they ask is the location of the emergency because some phones don't indicate your location. I called from a boat ramp once - no address just the name of the ramp and the operator said "OK I can see you" so even my G4 flip phone shows location to 911. Good to know

[Wag]

My phone has a setting that allows me to put in my address which then transmits to 911. If I'm at home it connects to my wireless and then the 911 operator can tell where I am, same as on a land line.

Problem is when I'm not at home, I have to tell them what address I'm at.

--Wag--

[WRideout]

An allied question - If I have my cell phone with a 757 area code, and go on vacation to NC or the other side of the country, where does my cell phone dial 911 - the area I am in or my local 757 911? I've not had to make an emergency call in such a situation.

So I am told, there is no (area code)911. Wherever you are, it will contact the nearest 911 call center. This worked for me twice, in the past.
The other Wayne

[upr45]

I install VoIP lines in my substation work. We test call 911 to ensure the correct address displays. some principals apply to cell 911 calls:
If your phone is on a cell booster the correct address may not display
If you call 911 and the phone system does not have your address info programmed -- your call will get routed to a 911 call center, these call centers are in various locations.
When you call 911 almost always the person answering will say "911, what is the location of your emergency ...". You should give the address if known to ensure responders are sent to correct location.

[AlaskaMike]

So I am told, there is no (area code)911. Wherever you are, it will contact the nearest 911 call center. This worked for me twice, in the past.
The other Wayne

Yes.

When you move into the footprint of a specific cell site and your phone registers with it, any calls you make are routed by that small telephone switch at the cell site. Each cell site routes 911 calls locally, so that's why there is no need to dial an area code when dialling 911 from a cell phone. And actually, this is no different from how any landline switch handles 911.

Note that this has nothing to do with how a dispatch center knows your physical location. Physically locating a cell phone making a 911 call has already been mentioned earlier in this thread.