VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF LAW TECHNOLOGY WINTER 2005 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA VOL 10 NO 1 An Island of Chaos Surrounded by a Sea of Confusion The E911 Wireless Device Location Initiative DARREN HANDLER ABSTRACT In most circumstances dialing 911 from a wireless phone does not give the caller s exact location While this may not pose an insurmountable problem when one is able to communicate additional location information such as a street location a problem becomes evident when one is lost in a snow storm on a road fleeing an assailant where location is constantly changing rather than fixed or offshore in a watercraft where the lack of physically identifying factors prevent location identification Addressing the ability of emergency first responders to pinpoint a wireless caller s location is a system known as the Enhanced 911 E911 Wireless Device Location Initiative E911 is an ambitious and arguably much needed national safety net for locating wireless callers via satellite global positioning or cellular tower triangulation technologies on a local state and national level Quite simply the ability to locate an individual s wireless call for help is a challenging but necessary capability especially when operating within an antiquated analog infrastructure that is over taxed by an everincreasing digital world This article explores the federal and state issues which plague full implementation of wireless E911 and suggestions by key stakeholders on how best to confront deployment roadblocks In addition this article seeks to inform and persuade the public and private sectors of the necessity of such a system in addition to the benefits such a network would provide to aid in combating some of today s asymmetric terrorist threats that are at the forefront of our nation s national security 2005 Virginia Journal of Law Technology Association at http www vjolt net Use paragraph numbers for pinpoint citations Third year law student at Cleveland Marshall College of Law Cleveland OH TABLE OF CONTENTS I II III IV Introduction 2 The Evolution of 911 in the United States 3 Regulatory Impact On Consumers Dialing 911 From Wireless Devices 8 Implementation Issues Full Steam Ahead Or Floundering In A Sea of Bureaucracy 9 V Regulatory and Budgetary Reforms 12 VI Conclusion 14 I INTRODUCTION Phone Number 911 Call Destination Emergency Minutes Used 1 01 1 We re taking in water We re on the Long Island Sound in a boat off the coast of City I Oh my God we re going to die 2 This haunting 911 call came from the cellular phone of a seventeen year old boy who along with three friends perished in the freezing waters off Long Island Sound after their boat capsized 3 Their pleas for help would go without response because the dispatcher could not determine the caller s location Simply put the city s 911 system was not capable of relaying the longitude and latitude4 of wireless calls so as to be able to dispatch help to the exact location offshore 2 Search and rescue personnel emphasize that being able to save a victim is by nature a function of time Any location aiding device which can narrow the search area greatly increases the likelihood of reaching a victim in time 5 The tragic death of the young boys off Long Island Sound is but one of many instances that have prompted Congress the public and a multitude of industry stakeholders to push for a system capable of providing wireless caller location data to emergency response centers 3 The purpose of this Article is two fold First it provides a platform for public awareness regarding the state of our nation s wireless 911 service capability Second 1 These were the particulars from a young boy s cell phone bill as read by his mother three weeks after he drowned off the coast of Long Island NY See Teens 911 Call Failed Them but May Get Help to Others N Y DAILY NEWS Mar 9 2003 at 10 available at http www nydailynews com news vpfriendly story 65670p 61140c html last visited Jan 3 2005 2 Id 3 Id 4 See David P Stern Latitude and Longitude at http wwwistp gsfc nasa gov stargaze Slatlong htm last visited Jan 3 2005 5 See e g Ben Charny Could E911 Have Helped in Disaster CNET NEWS COM Sept 12 2001 at http news com com Could E911 have helped in disaster 2100 1033 3 272923 html last visited Jan 3 2005 Vol 10 VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF LAW TECHNOLOGY No 1 2005 Darren Handler An Island of Chaos Surrounded by a Sea of Confusion 3 this article will show that there is an immediate need for federal regulation in the wireless 911 service sector Further it is the position of this article that there should be one federal agency with a supervisory umbrella over nationwide deployment 4 Part II will provide a synopsis of 911 service in the United States from its inception to the current state of implementation in various forms Part III will present a schematic overview of wireless phone routing as it pertains to emergency calls from a consumer awareness standpoint Part IV will discuss the current tribulations plaguing the realization of emergency wireless call location systems Similarly there will be a focus on the relation between federal and state agencies consumer advocacy groups and other key industry stakeholders Part V discusses various suggestions to accelerate nationwide Enhanced 911 E911 wireless service deployment more seamlessly and ubiquitously Part VI concludes with a summation of findings and a closing perspective on E911 deployment II The Evolution of 911 in the United States It has been suggested that Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephonic call for help 6 After Bell dropped some battery acid on his clothes he famously uttered Mr Watson come here I want you His assistant heard the words over the phone set up and rushed to his aid 7 5 6 The first real push for a nationwide emergency response phone number came in 1957 at the request of the National Association of Fire Chiefs as a means to provide one number to report fires 8 Then in 1967 the President s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended the implementation of a single number for reporting emergencies 9 This recommendation coupled with broad interest in such an emergency number system spurred the President s Commission on Civil Disorders to look to the Federal Communications Commission FCC for an answer 10 7 In conjunction with the FCC American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT T came up with a combination of numbers designated as 911 to serve as a nationwide emergency code 11 The 911 digit