Worry Over VZW, Sprint Phones' 911 Alarm 362
[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."
Very Dangerous (Score:4, Interesting)
I know a woman this happened to, she was behind the counter when theives broke into a bar to rob it. She hid behind the counter and called 911. If she had this phone, she would most likely be dead.
Re:911 Abuse (Score:5, Interesting)
We have the non-emergency police number programmed, just because we want to talk to a real officer and not put on hold to talk with some dumb 911 operator who makes us repeat our address 10 times and other dumb questions. We had a house burn down in front of ours, because it took 911 over 15 minutes to answer. I could have walked to the fire station quicker. We then discovered the non-emergency number and can get an officer here less than a minute any time. Its a real pleasure to talk with a real officer who has a clue what I need help with too. 911 operators don't have that quality.
Re:911 Abuse (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, doesn't the FCC or whatever body regulate that sort of stuff? here in the socialist paradise of the United Kingdom we have pretty hard and fast standards for emergency response (IIRC it's 8-12 minutes for an ambulance to be on scene, and that applies basically everywhere except isolated & sparsely populated areas like central wales or the Scottish highlands.) Wait half an hour for a reply from the cops in a life-and-death situation and you'd make the front page of the local paper, at least.
Re:Doh! (Score:3, Interesting)
Already happened (Score:4, Interesting)
With an audible alarm, Green and her baby would very likely have been dead.
Re:911 Abuse (Score:3, Interesting)
Blackberries - designed to call 911 accidentally (Score:5, Interesting)
It will become a problem if designers (or their idiot pointy haired managers) keep making dumb decisions.
Blackberries that have the scroll wheel and/or the pearl are extremely prone to accidentally dialing 911. If the scroll wheel is *touch* or moved in any way - a dialog pops up with three options:
Unlock
Emergency Call (aka Dial 911)
Cancel
So if the scrollwheel was scrolled down a tiny bit (50% of the time!), now all that's needed to call 911 is two presses in a row of the scrollwheel - (there is a confirm dialog, and it defaults to yes please call) - and hey we already know that it's getting mucked with because it got moved!
Guess what the Blackberry/Rogers techs had to say when I phoned them to ask how to disable that? "Putting the phone in your pocket or your purse *IS NOT SUPPORTED* - you are NOT supposed to do that." They claim that blackberries are only being used "as designed" when they are in their crappy shitty uncomfortable holsters*. RIM has clearly heard tons of people bitch to them about it, because they were immediately defensive and angry and very cross for me not keeping it in the holster 24/7 - clearly a canned "oh we need to blame the customer for our screw-up" kind of response.
What kind of stupid idiot designer uses *one button* to create an emergency dialing system? At the very least all other phones require you to press two seperate buttons in a particular order (9 - 1 - 1) without pressing any other buttons within the reset/re-lockout period. I have never EVER pulled my cell out of my pocket to find it ready to call or calling 911. EVERYONE I know has pulled their blackberry out of their purse or pocket to find that it was one button press away from calling 911, and I was walking with another friend on a street when he got a call back from 911 saying "what's the problem, you just called us".
The laws may say the phone has to be able to make emergency calls, but it doesn't say the designers need to be daft idiots.
Someday I'll get around to writing a letter to the chief of police in my city and province, and to the attorney general - and pointing out that all the dead calls they are getting are likely from Blackberries, and that they should sic the dogs on RIM.
(*) Holsters that for one reason or another continuously hold down buttons and keep the screen on.
Re:Well, duh. (Score:5, Interesting)
Could you describe what, exactly, the European brands have to offer that solves our problem? Somehow, I don't think paying a whopping premium to call a mobile number from my landline is a solution. If that happens, I'll just stop calling mobile numbers altogether. I'm perfectly happy with T-Mobile except for the lack of a PDA-phone that performs well enough to make it usable, and the lack of UMTS. Both of those are supposed to be fixed early next year. I'd like to see any European plan that provides me with 700+ minutes of unlimited calling and a data plan for two PDA phones at less than $100 per month.
I'm not taunting you or trying to argue. I just really want to know what it is the European competition offers that I'm missing.
Re:Well, duh. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a European (from Denmark, specifically) , and from what I know about how the US system works, I'm happy it's not that way here.
First off, you are not charged if someone calls you (except if you're in another country).
Second, there are no "branded" phones that artificially limits what you can do to it.
Third, a lot of subsidized phones. My phone will cost me around 500$ with all expenses, and on top of that I get ~700min/month for six months (oh, and the max. vendor-lock time here is six months). If I were to buy the phone without subsidization it would have been ~$450
For the landline premium, I agree it sucks. But instead of not calling to a mobile, most people just stop calling from a landline.
Another downside is that data is quite expensive, about
(btw, what do you mean by 700+ mins of unlimited calling?)
Re:Post-call Alarm "Emergency Mode", Boston, 112. (Score:1, Interesting)
I've been witness to incessant abuse in Boston given my position (attorney). This is the same PD that killed a girl after the Red Sox won.
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/10/22/postgame_police_projectile_kills_an_emerson_student/ [boston.com]
They are aggressive and inflammatory. A great deal of interactions I have had with them go like this, even though I am being professional. (This link is a recent case in Utah.)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fae_1195587967&p=1 [liveleak.com]
Even during the recent celebration, 37 arrests (sorry for the fox news link.)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305690,00.html [foxnews.com]
Of course not all cops are bad, but the culture of the PD in Boston is terrible. I keep far, far away and avoid all interactions with those jerks.