Lost Oregon Car was Using GSM Edge Wireless

And I still can't figure out, after stories like this, how some areas don't have E911 up and running.

I understand some rural areas are poor but I think the FCC or some other federal department should subsidize those areas that have received a waiver on the Tier III implementation date, if money is the reason for the delay.

 

I don't know if you have been following this story, but this CNET Editor took his family on a very remote area in Oregon & was advised by locals not to go that way at night.
He is still missing & they still have search & rescue crews looking for him, the found some articles of clothing & other items in a canyon about 2 miles from the car.

The family is lucky they were able to get rescued by the cell signal from the sounds of the reports.
Maybe a carrier or 2 will put some towers in these remote locations, with the local govt's. blessing to help people in these area's when they get lost or like in this case the vehicle is broken down, but I doubt it.

 

I didn't realize they were in a remote location without cell towers but my point was after reading something like this, it's amazing to me that anyone would drag their feet about implementing E911 Tier III. Obviously, if you're in an area without cell service E911 isn't going to help you but there are still some areas with cell service where E911 isn't implemented either by a carrier or the local 911 dispatch center.

 

i hope they find that guy, but it dont look too good.

 

This reminds me of a time years ago when my squad was dispatched for an auto accident late at night on a remote back road. The call came in on the passenger's cell phone and the driver was not conscious. The passenger did not know where they were, only where they were going. The dispatcher only knew the location of the tower that the phone was using. Most of the in service units in the county were dispatched and it still took over an hour to find them because the search area was so broad. Moto's right, there should be some sort of subsidy for areas that cannot afford to implement Wireless E911.

-Jay

 

I know that GSM uses the signal from the tower to give them the location, but how can that work if it is only in range of one tower? They would know how far the phone is from that tower, but not the exact location.

 

I think this proves that wireless communication, even in rural areas is essential. Of course not many carriers are interested in investing much in rural areas, but those areas are just as important, if not more in some cases, than great coverage in urban areas.

 

Unfortunatly James Kim's body was found earlier today.

Here's an article.

Here's another article.

Here's a look back at James Kim's Work.

This really, really sucks. I would watch him on C-NET TV on my phone.

 

Here are some more details, the signal barely got through. The people said it was very sparse coverage and chances for what happened were very slim. Why can't they mandate full coverage for safety purposes? Did his phone not have real GPS, only the tower positioning type thing?
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Technology, some lucky text messages and an outdoorsman's intuition helped locate Kati Kim and her daughters.

Searchers rescued Kati Kim, 30, and her daughters Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months, along a remote forest road Monday afternoon. The key to finding them, police said, was a "ping" from one of the family's cell phones that helped narrow down their location. Though cell phone signals are rare in the area, reports CBS News correspondent Blackstone, the family's phone connected briefly to a distant tower as it received a text message. That gave searchers a place to look.

According to one of two cell phone engineers who honed in on the Kims, the chance of the split-second signal making it through the rugged mountains was "very slim."

"It was just a hunch that we could help. And we followed up on the hunch," said Eric Fuqua, 39, an engineer for Edge Wireless LLC who contacted authorities to offer his services in the search. Edge Wireless provides cell phone coverage in southern Oregon, and is a member of Cingular Wireless' network.

Fuqua and co-worker Noah Pugsley started digging through computer records of cell phone traffic Saturday and learned that one of the Kims' cell phones had received two text messages around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 26, the day after the family was last seen at a restaurant in Roseburg, Ore.

The engineers were able to trace a "ping" from the Kims' phone when it received the text messages. They located not only the cell tower in Glendale, Ore., from which the messages were relayed, but a specific area west of the town where the phone received them.

With the family's possible location narrowed down, the pair used computer software to create a map predicting what parts of the mountainous region received any cell phone coverage at all.

Fuqua then relied on his extensive experience traveling the heavily forested back roads as both a fisherman and a technician, he said, to guess the course the family may have taken as they headed from the mountains toward the coast.

The engineers' sleuthing led searchers to focus on Bear Camp Road.

Kati Kim and her daughters were found with their snowbound car just off that road, which Fuqua called "impossible" terrain to navigate for anyone with no knowledge of the area.

The complicated network of roads in the area is commonly used by whitewater rafters on the Rogue River or as summer shortcuts to Gold Beach — the Kims' destination when they went missing. The roads are not plowed in winter.

Searchers were lucky that the Kims received a cell phone signal at all in an area with "very, very sparse coverage," Fuqua said. "Every now and then, if you go slow enough, you'll hit our towers for just one second in that one spot," he said.

Details of the contents of the text messages and who sent them have not been released.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/06/national/main2232874.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_2232874

 

I wasn't arguing it and I agree and guess the carriers do enough crying and complaining to get this pushed back as long as possible.

I was just trying to make a point that in these really remote area's they need to provide some type of coverage even just for emergency's & this is where the goverment should be giving the carriers the money from the USF that they collect & not to the small regional landline companies, that most give the money back to their shareholders.

As for Mr. Kim, I was saddened to hear he wasn't found alive, and do hope his family is doing well after they were found, especially after this sad story.

 

so sad it had to end like that.

 

Yeah, this is a very sad ending to a story that I was following for a while.

After they found his family, I took a look at the different carriers coverage maps, and there is absolutly NOTHING out there, not even analog. I'm amazed their phone reached a tower.

 

I find the method by which they were saved appropriate, when you consider James worked for CNet, which is the geekiest, techwebsite around* I find it fitting that wireless technology saved his family. I just want to know what kind of phone it was that got signal way out there.

He was a brave, brave man who did the right thing. A hero, in my book.

*This is meant as a compliment.

 

I believe I read it was a Blackberry.....

 

I was sad when I heard the ending of the story. Like others said, good thing that their phone did connect for just that brief second, though.

 

OK guys here is one VERY important issue the media always leaves out. The cell phone companies have completed their Phase 2 E911 requirements (location based). The problem is the local E911 centers have not done their part. The local & state governments have taken the money that was allocated for this and spent it on other things so now they don't have the funds to complete their side of the "deal" so to speak. So they (the local & state government) need to step up and fix their side of the mess

 

I agree that this falls mostly on the municipalities, not the wireless companies but there are still some small TelCos that don't have E911 complaince.

What was the date for phase III implementation? Shouldn't everyone have completed that by now?

It just upsets me that something this important seems to have been moved to the backburner by the carriers, the 911-answering centers and the FCC. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like everyone is dragging their feet and it's not doing anyone any good.

 

MOTO,

There is no such thing as phase III only phase 2. The date for compliance was 1/1/2002. The problem is that the state & local governments have wasted the money and are trying to blame someone else. Anyway I agree it needs to be fixed.

 

I believe that it either should have been completed, or should be near completion at this point. I know that some wireless carriers themselves have applied for an extension on this rule or part of the rule, because they couldn't get some people off using old IS-95 phones.

 

Wow...2002...that is amazing that it's now almost 2007 and look where we are...sad.

 

Did anyone hear Nancy Grace's rant on the cellphone problem? She said it was the carriers fault that they didn't have coverage in a National Park. :lmao:

 

D'oh! You're right, that's totally my fault. I remember some speculation about a proposed phase III some years ago but it never amounted to anything. Thanks for correcting me.

 

Wow, maybe she needs to come here and learn some things about these sites & what goes on to build them.

It does seem though, that there may be a push to have carriers put sites in these parks & other remote area's with this sad event. If that happens, the carriers should throw in there, we also have problems in cities, towns etc... & need to put towers up to cover these gaps before something else tragic happens & get the NIMBY'ers to be hushed up a little.
It could work for a short time at least, if something more were to come out of this to force them to do more.

 

I'm going to have to check with my dispatch center. They have given my cell 911 calls, and were able to tell me to within 1 block, where the call was coming from. And some other times, I ask them for the location of the cell 911 call and they say something like...well, it came in phase 2, so no trace information came with it. So it seems, some are getting traced and some aren't...I just don't get yet why this is :headscrat

EDIT: I just talked to our dispatch....and she said that cell calls that come up as Phase 2, she looks on a different screen, which is a big map of our county, and a little cell phone symbol will show where the signal is coming from...and will move if they are moving (like pranksters walking down the street pranking 911, which has happened) the symbol will move with them. SOme calls however do not come up with Phase 2 information. She said the bugs are not worked out yet. She says sometimes calls come in with Phase 2 information, and the map of our county just stays blank. SHe isn't sure who is responsible for the bugs....us or the carriers.

 

Dont forget about all the people who are paranoid and wont upgrade to a GPS capable phone because they dont want the government to "track their every move"

 

That's what 911-only settings are for.

 

I agree, but try to convince one of those paranoid people that if you set it to 911 only the government cant track them and see what happens.

 

Moto;

Sorry but there are not 911 only settings for GPS enabled phones. The mobile has to constantly stay in touch with the network to work properly. I guess the parnoid folks will have to worry about the eye in the sky.

 

So you are saying that my Emergency Only/911 Only setting is fake on my phone?