cell phone area code???

pmanton

pmanton

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Indian Hills Airpark Salome, AZ
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I've kept the same cell phone number for years and years. I have a 253 WA area code.

However I'm now at an airpark in AZ. Should I call 911 in my now 928 area code with my 253 AC will I connect to the local dispatcher, or to some guy sitting at a screen in Tacoma?

Thanks

Paul
Salome, AZ
 
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I'm pretty sure your cell phone won't work that way. I think the E911 system triangulates using towers and any GPS capability in your phone.
 
Cell phones are mandated to have a locator system and will route a 911 call to the nearest dispatcher. If you have an ancient phone, it may not work that way.

BTW, one can get a phone number with any area code one desires.

Cheers
 
The 911 functionality on a cell phone has nothing to do with the area code or phone number. It will contact the 911 dispatcher closest to your location, using the best location data available to the phone (usually GPS if outdoors).

This is true even if the phone is not on an active account and has no phone number associated with it.

-Rich
 
If you like your current phone number and area code, keep it.
I made the big mistake of changing my area code to Jacksonville (904) from my previous area code in Greenville of (864).
The problem I've been having is the fact that it's extremely difficult to make sure that everyone gets your new number.
The other problem is that I get all kinds of junk calls now from people I don't know or even want to talk to.
I even get XXX text messages at least once a month and that never happened with my old number. :mad:
 
Before I retired 6 months ago, I was the liaison between our agency and dispatch.

911 calls from cell phones are routed to the dispatch center (called a PSAP, a Public Safety Answering Point) having jurisdiction for the local where the cell tower is physically located.
The system has two components, ANI and ALI. ANI is Automated Number Identification (caller ID on steroids, can't be spoofed). ALI is Automated Location Identification, which uses the physical address of a landline.

ANI gives your cell number, ALI will identify to the dispatcher as a cell call, and that location information is unverified.
From there, the system do one of three things:

1 - If the cell phone has the GPS chip required for the last few years, AND if the PSAP can been upgraded to handle GPS coordinates, then it will pass the GPS location of the phone. This is E911, or Enhanced 911.

2 - If the cell phone passes GPS but the PSAP can't integrate lat/longs, ALI will show the address of the cell tower and show the lat/long from the phone. The dispatch center can look up the lat/longs and get the location.

3 - If the phone can't do GPS location, ALI will show the location of the cell tower, and that the cell phone cannot be further located.

The dispatcher will always ask for your phone number and location, to verify what ANI/ALI is showing.

Note that the system does not care about your area code, and where your phone loves has no impact on ANI/ALI. It is using the physical location of the cell tower receiving your call to make the initial routing.
 
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The two times I've had the occasion to call 911 on a cell phone, I got no response. Zero. Zippo. Don't even bother.
 
OK, Knowing that I should connect locally eased my mind somewhat.

I did have an experience that I can't account for. Our airpark is somewhat isolated 60 miles from the nearest sizable town and almost 100 miles from the big city Phoenix.

I had a chap show up on our doorstop battered and bleeding from having been pounded on. His story was he was beat up for trying to retrieve "his" property. My wife was immediately on the scene trying to help this guy bringing his water, wet towels etc.

He did not strike me as an upstanding citizen and I attempted to call 911 on my cell. I could not get through, it never rang. The sun was too bright to see it I had any error message on the cell screen. I was loath to go inside with my wife outside with this twerp. I finally grabbed the wireless phone when my wife went in for more wet towels.

The Deputy confirmed my suspicions about this guy.

I had supposed that perhaps my inability to connect was caused by the area code being wrong. So now I don't know why I couldn't get through.

Thanks

Paul
2AZ1
 
pmanton said:
I did have an experience that I can't account for...

I had supposed that perhaps my inability to connect was caused by the area code being wrong. So now I don't know why I couldn't get through.
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I'm sorry that I can't answer that for you.
I will say that I have called 911 from my cell phone and forgot to hit send. We are programmed to "Dial 911", not "Dial 911 and hit SEND". I have done that twice, dialed 911 and put the phone to my ear, then wondered why no one was answering. Took my phone away and looked at it, and the screen still showed '911' waiting for me to press send.

I don't know how long ago that was, but currently if you dial 911 and hit send, it will pre-empt other calls to give you a line. It will also register your number and put the call through even if you immediately hang up (like hit send and *instantly* hang up).
The disconnected call will hit the 911 operator with the ANI giving your number, and they will immediately call you back.
 
pmanton said:
I've kept the same cell phone number for years and years. I have a 253 WA area code.

However I'm now at an airpark in AZ. Should I call 911 in my now 928 area code with my 253 AC will I connect to the local dispatcher, or to some guy sitting at a screen in Tacoma?

Thanks

Paul
Salome, AZ
Click to expand...

No, I've dialed 911 from the side of the highway to get someone help from various locations over the years and I always get the local dispatcher.
 
pmanton said:
I've kept the same cell phone number for years and years. I have a 253 WA area code.

However I'm now at an airpark in AZ. Should I call 911 in my now 928 area code with my 253 AC will I connect to the local dispatcher, or to some guy sitting at a screen in Tacoma?

Thanks

Paul
Salome, AZ
Click to expand...

No, I've dialed 911 from the side of the highway to get someone help from various locations over the years and I always get the local dispatcher.
 
It's been years since I've gotten a phone briefing from LockMart. If you call 800-WX-BRIEF from a cell phone does it still route you to your "home" FSS based on your area code, regardless of where you are?
 
Pilawt said:
It's been years since I've gotten a phone briefing from LockMart. If you call 800-WX-BRIEF from a cell phone does it still route you to your "home" FSS based on your area code, regardless of where you are?
Click to expand...

I think it might - or just route you to the closest open line . . .
 
Pilawt said:
It's been years since I've gotten a phone briefing from LockMart. If you call 800-WX-BRIEF from a cell phone does it still route you to your "home" FSS based on your area code, regardless of where you are?
Click to expand...

Doesn't route me at all. I have to punch in my state always.
 
masloki said:
Doesn't route me at all. I have to punch in my state always.
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Or yell the name of the state into the speaker phone like some old deaf guy =)
ear-trumpet.jpg
 
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It tries. From my place in NC it routinely routes me to the county across the lake, but they seem used to it and have a way to reroute me without me having to do anything but wait another ten seconds.

The source number is immaterial. While land lines and even VOIP services use the billing records to place the location (don't get me started on how I know about this one), as pointed out, mobile phones use either GPS or triangulation features to pinpoint where the phone is at the time the call is placed.
 
flyingron said:
It tries. From my place in NC it routinely routes me to the county across the lake, but they seem used to it and have a way to reroute me without me having to do anything but wait another ten seconds.

The source number is immaterial. While land lines and even VOIP services use the billing records to place the location (don't get me started on how I know about this one),
Click to expand...

Both VoIP providers I deal with require you to enter the physical '911 address' for the box in addition to the billing address. All my bills go to a PO box but the phones on the account are at different locations. After a day or so, I received an email 'based on the address provided, your calls will be routed to blabla sheriffs dept. dispatch, if you believe that this is in error, contact us at blablabla'.
 
Your Cell Phone will work just fine. Remember though that if you make a call from inside your house, it is possible that the house will block the GPS signal and the 9-1-1 dispatcher may not have your accurate location. Even if they do have you GPS location, it may not match up accurately with your house address. It is always better to call from a landline phone in your house if you have one.

Here is how 9-1-1 works on a cell phone. You dial 9-1-1 and the cellular switch sends a message off to a server giving the server your mobile number and cell site you make the call from. The server then makes a request to the cell phone to have the cell phone turn on it;s GPS and return it's location (this takes 8-30 seconds). While it is waiting for the GPS location, it looks at the cell ID and determines which 9-1-1 center (called a PSAP - public safety answering point) is responsible for the that location (this is pre-arranged for each cell tower). This is important because there are about 6000 different PSAPs. The server then returns routing instructions back to the cellular switch. The cellular switch then routes over dedicated 9-1-1 trunks to one of 600 switches that will then route the call to the proper PSAP. When the PSAP receives this 9-1-1 call, it will query the server to get the phone number, cell tower address and x/y if it has been computed yet. The PSAP can also re-query the server to get the X/Y later or get an updated GPS location.

This is a little different from how land lines phones are done. With landline phones, the phone number is sent with the call to the PSAP(ANI) (on cell phones a psudo number is sent and that is used to query the server for the real phone number) this number is used to query the ALI for the static address of the phone number.

It gets more complicated for new VoIP phones and now the major wireless carriers have just agreed to route SMS (text) calls to 9-1-1 to PSAPs that want them. SMS has become a major way for kids,deaf, and people that are unable to talk for one reason or another to communicate. Also SMS works in bad coverage areas where voice will not.

Probably more than most people want to know!
 
jsnapp said:
Probably more than most people want to know!
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No, keep talking.

I have had a cellphone 911 call routed to a neighboring state, I assume that was because I happened to be connected to a tower from across the river and the initial routing is done by tower location, not the GPS fix. Took them no time at all to connect me with the right dispatch.
 
This really is a big advance from the early days. My youngest daughter was in 2nd grade with another girl who lost her mother in a car accident. This was about 15yrs ago. The mom was headed home after her shift at about 2am and ran off the road into some trees. She called 911 on her phone but the best anyone could do was to narrow down her location to the nearest tower and ask her to listen for sirens. She went in an out of consciousness until she couldn't talk any more. It wasn't until the sun came up and a truck driver, sitting up high, noticed her car down the embankment hidden from view of everyone else.

I don't know if a GPS enabled phone, or the newer location services would have helped in that situation or not.
 
jsnapp said:
Your Cell Phone will work just fine. Remember though that if you make a call from inside your house, it is possible that the house will block the GPS signal and the 9-1-1 dispatcher may not have your accurate location. Even if they do have you GPS location, it may not match up accurately with your house address. It is always better to call from a landline phone in your house if you have one.

Here is how 9-1-1 works on a cell phone. You dial 9-1-1 and the cellular switch sends a message off to a server giving the server your mobile number and cell site you make the call from. The server then makes a request to the cell phone to have the cell phone turn on it;s GPS and return it's location (this takes 8-30 seconds). While it is waiting for the GPS location, it looks at the cell ID and determines which 9-1-1 center (called a PSAP - public safety answering point) is responsible for the that location (this is pre-arranged for each cell tower). This is important because there are about 6000 different PSAPs. The server then returns routing instructions back to the cellular switch. The cellular switch then routes over dedicated 9-1-1 trunks to one of 600 switches that will then route the call to the proper PSAP. When the PSAP receives this 9-1-1 call, it will query the server to get the phone number, cell tower address and x/y if it has been computed yet. The PSAP can also re-query the server to get the X/Y later or get an updated GPS location.

This is a little different from how land lines phones are done. With landline phones, the phone number is sent with the call to the PSAP(ANI) (on cell phones a psudo number is sent and that is used to query the server for the real phone number) this number is used to query the ALI for the static address of the phone number.

It gets more complicated for new VoIP phones and now the major wireless carriers have just agreed to route SMS (text) calls to 9-1-1 to PSAPs that want them. SMS has become a major way for kids,deaf, and people that are unable to talk for one reason or another to communicate. Also SMS works in bad coverage areas where voice will not.

Probably more than most people want to know!
Click to expand...

Beat me to it. I was just going to say all that. :rolleyes:

-Rich
 
Matthew said:
This really is a big advance from the early days. My youngest daughter was in 2nd grade with another girl who lost her mother in a car accident. This was about 15yrs ago. The mom was headed home after her shift at about 2am and ran off the road into some trees. She called 911 on her phone but the best anyone could do was to narrow down her location to the nearest tower and ask her to listen for sirens. She went in an out of consciousness until she couldn't talk any more. It wasn't until the sun came up and a truck driver, sitting up high, noticed her car down the embankment hidden from view of everyone else.

I don't know if a GPS enabled phone, or the newer location services would have helped in that situation or not.
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It is a great advance if it works.

In 2005, a young couple froze to death in rural NE after they had done some meth and got completely lost in a snowstorm. They were on the phone with dispatchers several times but unable to relay any useful information. The only information available to the dispatchers was the location of the tower, but with land as flat as it is there, that tower covered an area reaching into several counties.
After the MD state police Trooper2 helo crashed, the searchers were sent to the location of the cell tower as that was the only information available. Only after an off-duty pilot went to the location several miles away where he knew that they had to be (under the Andrews AFB localizer), the wreckage and the survivor were found.
 
Never trust the GPS in your cell phone. Sometimes it'll work, and sometimes, it won't. Been pretty lucky lately and most of them have plotted close to where the caller says they are, but sometimes, I'll get calls from 200 miles away. No big deal to transfer to the proper PSAP, but still, its annoying.

And if you have a Voip phone? Do yourself a favor. Call the local po po dispatch center on the business line. Tell them you'd like to do a 911 test call. 99% of the time, they won't have a problem with it. Then call 911. Confirm with the dispatcher that your address and the address on their ANI/ALI screen is the same.

I get voip 911 calls all the time with incorrect info. I'm in central WA, I've gotten calls from people in NM, OR, CO and even one from some place in Mexico. Apparently the woman owns a vacation home there and took her phone with her. And she didn't really care that it wasn't correct. ~sigh~


And to the OP. Get a new number. Don't advertise that you're from the coast. ewwww...... :)
 
How did it work it before phones had GPS? It still gave me the correct dispatcher even way back before GPS phones.
 
DeeG said:
Never trust the GPS in your cell phone. Sometimes it'll work, and sometimes, it won't. Been pretty lucky lately and most of them have plotted close to where the caller says they are, but sometimes, I'll get calls from 200 miles away. No big deal to transfer to the proper PSAP, but still, its annoying.

And if you have a Voip phone? Do yourself a favor. Call the local po po dispatch center on the business line. Tell them you'd like to do a 911 test call. 99% of the time, they won't have a problem with it. Then call 911. Confirm with the dispatcher that your address and the address on their ANI/ALI screen is the same.

I get voip 911 calls all the time with incorrect info. I'm in central WA, I've gotten calls from people in NM, OR, CO and even one from some place in Mexico. Apparently the woman owns a vacation home there and took her phone with her. And she didn't really care that it wasn't correct. ~sigh~


And to the OP. Get a new number. Don't advertise that you're from the coast. ewwww...... :)
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Thanks for reminding me about the VOIP 911 peculiarities.

I've long had a MagicJack number that I've mainly given to people who insist on having my number (department stores, government agencies, my drunken ex, etc.), but whom I don't particularly want to hear from -- and certainly don't want to have my cell number.

I recently gave in and "upgraded" to the MagicJack PLUS, however, because they were selling them at half-price and you don't need to connect it to a computer once it's activated (it plugs right into the router). I was surprised to find that the quality's not horrible -- especially considering how cheap it is. So I decided to actually put a phone on it and use it as a home landline number.

But I hadn't gotten around to testing the 911 until tonight, so I called our friendly county 911 dispatcher. In my case, it did in fact, send all the correct information.

-Rich
 
Henning said:
How did it work it before phones had GPS? It still gave me the correct dispatcher even way back before GPS phones.
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Exactly the same way it works now. The call is routed to the 911 center having jurisdiction over the location of the cell tower your call is going to.
Everything after that (GPS, etc) is extra.
 
PilotAlan said:
Exactly the same way it works now. The call is routed to the 911 center having jurisdiction over the location of the cell tower your call is going to.
Everything after that (GPS, etc) is extra.
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That's what I figured.
 
weilke said:
No, keep talking.

I have had a cellphone 911 call routed to a neighboring state, I assume that was because I happened to be connected to a tower from across the river and the initial routing is done by tower location, not the GPS fix. Took them no time at all to connect me with the right dispatch.
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That is not uncommon. When a carrier determines where to route calls from a tower, they look at the coverage from that tower and work with all of the PSAPs that the tower covers to figure out who to route it to. If 90% of the coverage area is PSAP A and 10% is PSAP B but a major interstate runs through the 10% area of PSAP B they may decide to route the calls to PSAP B because that is where most of the calls route.

In CA things are starting to be done differently because of large amount of 9-1-1 traffic and VERY long call wait times (some times 10+ minutes with CA Hwy Patrol who takes the calls on the interstates). There if the call comes from a cell that covers an interstate, the system will wait for the X/Y to determine if the call is from on the highway or off the highway and they route accordingly.
 
pmanton said:
I've kept the same cell phone number for years and years. I have a 253 WA area code.

However I'm now at an airpark in AZ. Should I call 911 in my now 928 area code with my 253 AC will I connect to the local dispatcher, or to some guy sitting at a screen in Tacoma?

Thanks

Paul
Salome, AZ
Click to expand...

Your cell phone is routed to the designated 911 provider for where the cell tower your phone connects to is located.

The specifics/semantics of exactly how and exactly what info 911 sees on their ANI/ALI (automatic number identifier/automatic location identifier) is up to the local 911 entity and local government, as well as the cell provider's infrastructure.

Now... if you dial 911 from an internet phone landline like Vonage or MagicJack,. the call is routed to the 911 provider for the address you registered the service at. So if you move across city limits or 10 blocks away or whatever, and call 911, they are going to your OLD address unless you update the database. If you give conflicting information over the phone, most providers I was associated with went to both addresses until they sorted things out.
 
RJM62 said:
The 911 functionality on a cell phone has nothing to do with the area code or phone number. It will contact the 911 dispatcher closest to your location, using the best location data available to the phone (usually GPS if outdoors).

This is true even if the phone is not on an active account and has no phone number associated with it.

-Rich
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Rich has it right and I confirm that from a technical PoV and from personal experience.

With my 847 area code cell number I called 911 in Vancouver, BC and was immediately connected with the local PSAP. No delay at all.

In the Czech Republic I called 119 (their local emergency number) and was also connected to local dispatcher, in this case the police. This too was also with an 847 area code phone.

It is also supposed to work with any emergency number you call. For instance in the UK is 999. Since that is what most UK user will have in their mind when an emergency happens, if they were visiting the US and their phone was on a US cell site and they called 999 they would be routed to the appropriate 911 operator. Same thing for us when we travel. If we just call 911, we go to whatever local emergency center is there.
 
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