Prior to the advent of wireless calling, location information was relatively simple to obtain. The caller's telephone number was simply matched to an associated address and the information was displayed to the call-taker in the PSAP.

As the number of wireless callers grew, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recognized that wireless callers were receiving a lower quality of service than fixed callers were. In response, the FCC, in 1994 began issuing a series of orders aimed at improving the quality of service and reliability of 911 emergency response for wireless phone users. These orders obliged both wireless service providers as well as public safety solution vendors to adopt their technology to new 911 life saving caller location identification needs.

Wireless 911 calls pose special challenges for the emergency call taker. A caller using a wireless phone could be calling from anywhere. While the location of the cell tower used to carry a 911 call may provide a very general indication of the location of the caller, that information is not usually specific enough for rescue personnel to deliver assistance to the caller quickly.

The FCC used a phased approach, with phase I requiring the PSAP to display the wireless caller's call back number and the location of the cell site or base station receiving the 911 call. Phase II offers greater precision and requires the PSAP to not only work with the Phase I information, but also the caller's latitude and longitude coordinates, accurate to 50-300 meters.

In response to this industry change, Lieutenant Robert Johnson, Director of Communications of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office partnered with Positron Public Safety Systems to ensure that his emergency 911 call takers would be able to quickly locate wireless 911 callers. The Columbia County Sheriff's Office has been a Positron customer for over seven years, and has an integrated solution consisting of Power 911, Power MAP, and Power MIS solutions. There are five call taker positions at the center.

Positron's Power 911 call-handling system provides powerful configuration capabilities that decode the information provided in the ALI stream delivered by the wireless service provider and presents it coherently to the call-handler. Because this information is broadcast between the Power 911 telephony system and the Power MAP application, the location of the call is precisely and graphically mapped for the call-taker to see. Positron offers a very easy migration with respect to working with Phase II wireless data. [Learn More]

The Columbia County Florida project required coordination between the Columbia Emergency call Center, Positron, and the multiple wireless service providers in the Columbia County Florida region. During the implementation phase, it was discovered that wireless phase II calls were not being displayed on the Positron Power MAP. This posed immediate concern for Lieutenant Robert Johnson and his staff.

Through dynamic trouble shooting Positron personnel quickly located the root cause of this issue. On a per calls basis, some of the wireless service providers were not sending the needed Phase II location information to the PSAP. Armed with the root cause data from Positron, Lieutenant Robert Johnson immediately contacted the relevant wireless providers and initiated a corrective action plan.

In Lieutenant Robert Johnson own words back to Positron, "I am happy to report that we are now getting Phase II GPS coordinate information from many of the wireless carriers in the area. There are still a couple that is in the process of testing and completing the switch. As long as a citizen has a newer wireless phone that gives GPS information during a 911 call we can get their location, even with phones that have had the service disconnected and they can only dial 911. By the end of the year we should be receiving this information on a large majority of wireless 911 calls.

This new information has helped us greatly in identifying residences where citizens have called in with their wireless phone instead of their house phone from their residence. It has also aided us in pinpointing where on our interstate highways an incident has happened. As you know, this can sometimes be very difficult in finding out where a crash or other incident is located at when travelers who are not familiar with where they are call in to try to tell us where something is. We have been able to tell responding units better ways to get to an incident, which exit will be closest, and, at times, even which lane of the interstate the call is coming from.

"I am excited about this new tool and can only see it making our responses faster so we can provide better assistance to the citizens. I wanted to thank you all for your assistance and hard work in making this project successful."

Positron is proud to have Columbia County Sheriff's Office as part of the family.