Worry Over VZW, Sprint Phones' 911 Alarm

[TheBORG] writes "An Austin woman who dialed 911 recently discovered what she said could be a fatal flaw in some new cell phones. She called for help when she arrived at some vacant property she owns in east Austin and found her security chain gone. She grabbed her new Verizon Wireless Casio G'zOne phone, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911. Fearing vandals were still on the property, she hung up and hid, then put her hand over the earpiece and dialed again to muffle the sounds. A Verizon Wireless spokesperson says it's mandatory according to Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act. The FCC says Section 255 of the Telecommunications Code requires that phones let a caller know a 911 call is underway, but does not require an audible alarm. This thread on Howardforums.com mentions that the alarm is present on new Sprint phones too."

Post-call Alarm "Emergency Mode", Boston, 112.

[httpamphibio.us]

I call 911 on a regular basis to report out of control drivers and street fights (I live in Boston, there are tons of both of these). All my Verizon phones (I've had three) go into "Emergency Mode" when you call 911 and stay in this mode for several minutes after the conversation has ended then make a loud chirp when going back into non-emergency mode.

Two semi-related notes... first, a couple months ago my battery died when I was reporting a street fight. When I checked my voicemail after it was done charging I had an irate message from a cop yelling, "DO NOT HANG UP ON THE BOSTON POLICE!" and threatening me with arrest!

Second... on Nokia candy bar phones when the keypad is locked you can key in 911 and it'll automatically come out of the locked mode. Also, 112 does the same. Can anyone tell me what 112 is?

112 is the GSM international emergency number

[Chrisq]

It is the GSM international emergency number, and the European emergency number. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-1-2 [wikipedia.org]

Re:wrong way to eliminate accidental 911 calls

[CoolVibe]

In the Netherlands we have a similar service (we dial 112 instead of 911), which sometimes gets called accidentally. A human picks up the call, hears nobody on the other side, and hangs up. The caller gets an SMS that notifies him that he/she dialed 112 accidentally. Way better system.

Easy solution

[Kohath]

This is another problem that can easily be solved by carrying a handgun.

Re:Post-call Alarm "Emergency Mode", Boston, 112.

[koekie]

112 is the European "911".

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:wrong way to eliminate accidental 911 calls

[dmatos]

The way it works in NA, IIRC, is that if 911 is called and the operator doesn't hear anyone, they have to assume the worst and send fire, police and ambulance to the address of the phone (if it's a land line). Not sure how it works for cell phones.

Re:Well, duh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately it would be criminal to remove it, thanks to Congress.

Now the article says the FCC doesn't require a loud tone, which is technically true. Unfortunately the Telecommunications Act DOES require a loud noise of some type, so that blind people are aware that they've dialed 911.

This is a mandated "accessibility" feature. The FCC says they're free to remove the "alarm" but at best they could replace it with a loud voice announcing "you're calling 911!" which I don't think would help.

In this case Congress deserves the blame for passing a law without thinking of the consequences. They demanded that all phones make it clear to blind people that they had dialed 911, and the only way to do that on phones without a Braille interface is a loud noise of some form. No matter what the FCC says about the alarm not being "required," some form of loud noise IS required.

Re:911 Abuse

[stevey]

And now the punchline ... In the UK our number is 999, but nowadays 911 works too.

I remember the rationale given that many children would see it on TV and not know it wasn't supposed to apply to them...

Re:911 Abuse

[zippthorne]

No, she did the right thing. The non-emergency numbers are for non-emergencies. One clue that you're not having an emergency is that it seems like a reasonable idea to go to the phone book and skim through a few blue-pages until you find the right number. Obviously, if you have reason to believe you might have to put yourself in physical danger to even get to the phone book, you're not having a non-emergency.

It's important not to abuse the emergency numbers, but it's also just as important not to be nervous about using them when you actually need to.

Re:wrong way to eliminate accidental 911 calls

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in Spain we also have 112. I accidentally dialed it once on my cellphone. What they did after hearing no response was hanging up and then calling back to ask if everything was ok, I presume to avoid just the kind of unfortunate situation you described.

Re:112 is the GSM international emergency number

[VGPowerlord]

In case someone doesn't know what that's in reference to, watch this video [youtube.com] from The IT Crowd [wikipedia.org].

Re:Well, duh.

[joto]

How would that work given in China it's 119? Something about the Chinese government hates the US that stupidly.

Yes, I agree that it's a good idea to know the local emergency number. But I disagree that having a different emergency number than 911 should indicate that you hate the US. In fact, most of the countries of the world, do not have 911 as emergency number. [sccfd.org]. Moreover, many countries still "unofficially" route 911 to the local emergency number to take care of idiots, american tourists, and people raised on Hollywood movies (some of these categories may overlap).

Re:WTF?

[Moridin42]

Just to offer up a word of caution, I've read quite a few times that semi-autos don't cycle properly with Glasers. So if you're going to use them, test them first. (This would actually apply to any loading you plan to use for defense)

It isn't cheap, especially with the price tag on Glasers. But defending your life isn't cheap either, with lost income and legal costs.