If there's an emergency and you happen to be in California, do not make the fatal mistake of calling 911 using your mobile phone. As much as possible look for the nearest landline in the vicinity.




An eye-opening investigation by the Los Angeles Times reveals that 1 in 5 wireless calls to 911 came into California Highway Patrol (CHP) dispatch centers with no location information.

In short, the emergency team or the police unit will have a hard time tracking your location. Aside from putting lives in danger, this poor tracking system is also non-compliant with FCC regulations.

The FCC requires that 95% of a cellphone carrier's calls be automatically tracked to within 980 feet of a phone's location. But until now, the commission has permitted wireless companies to average their performance across huge, multi-state service areas.

I find this issue very disturbing since several people died because of this inefficiency. I can't forget the part in that investigation about an 84-year old woman who was kidnapped and raped but managed to make 4 calls on her cellphone. Unfortunately, she could not be tracked and the next day authorities found her dead. It's very devastating.

I guess the mobile industry is too focused on developing revenue-generating features like mobile TV that they don't have much time and resources to brainstorm about life-saving technologies.