Comments on: Turning cell phones into lifelines

update Cell phones constantly update their position with cell towers, making them an important tool in finding lost persons.

[punterjoe]

future mobile coverage - better or worse?

I'm wondering if mobile coverage in remote locations - which are less profitable due to their sparse population, will suffer when the mobile carriers retire their 950Mhz analog coverage in the near future? Can we expect these companies to spend the money to provide digital coverage into these unprofitable areas? Is there any practical alternative to stay in touch in these wilderness areas?

[Maggie Reardon]

Good question

These are great questions. I hadn't thought of this, but I will look into it for a possible future story. Thanks for the good idea!

[GEBERWEIN]

Not everywhere - now or in the near future

Cellular location technology is not everywhere as this article leads one to believe. Many rural areas are lagging far behind the highly populated world in this valuable tool. One of the major drawbacks is the unwillingness by state legislatures to place a tax on cell phones for the costs of wireless 9-1-1. Their thinking is that the cell customer already is paying for it with the tax on their home phone. Yet they fail to realize the customer pays the same tax for each phone line and the cell phone is just another phone line (even if it is a different type) and the cell phone actually costs more for the 9-1-1 service.

Several states have adopted a cost recovery attiude toward the location deployment. The state pays the cell company to install the equipment and technology for the service. That's OK if all it is for is emergency calling; but the provider gets to profit off its use for other services they charge for. And there is no payback to the government.

It is true the metro allure is still alive and well in both areas - cellular service and location availability. And, until there is some means to fund this where politicians do not rule by vote or special interest appeal, it will remain so.

[klx88]

Coverage should not be an issue

In emergency situation, it should be possible to bring in temporary access point to remote location to search for cellphone signal.
Wonder how often a cellphone wakes up to scan for signal after the cellphone enters powerdown mode for lack of signal?

[sbarr10]

all well and good

And I'm very glad it helped find Kati and the two girls.

Now if we could only keep people from yacking on cell phones to distraction while they are doing the serious business of driving their cars, then I'll be 100% convinced that we're safer with cell phones.

[aabcdefghij987654321]

Police warrants will follow

Once tracking is installed in phones it's a sure bet that the police will get warrants to trace the location of phones for "people of interest" and the question of how long that tracking information will be retained will also become important. But then it's a case of public safety vs individual safety.

I can see a time soon where the records of everyone who's been close to the scene of a murder will be subpoenaed to look for both the culprit and potential witnesses. And you can be sure that more than one murderer will be caught because their phone placed them at the scene at the right time.

[Jeff419]

Who says they aren't already....

Just because they don't admit to doing this doesn't mean they aren't. Why did the Govt. mandate GPS in the first place? To keep us safe? HA!!! That's a good one.

[GEBERWEIN]

GPS not a mandate

THe FCC did not 'mandate' GPS. Just location. There are several solutions out there for doing that. It was the Emergency Services Agencies (of which Police are the minority) that requested it. Primarilly the EMS responders who have a really bad time trying to find a heart attack that is happening in a red pickup somewhere on a fifty mile long highway. And, that's all the caller knows. She was sleeping when they went through the last town and her husband is dying at the wheel. It's the EMS who are trying to find an injured hunter in a 2000 square mile area. Sure the cops would like it. But, they weren't the prime mover behind this movement.

[Jeff419]

Who says they aren't already....

Just because they don't admit to doing this doesn't mean they aren't. Why did the Govt. mandate GPS in the first place? To keep us safe? HA!!! That's a good one.

www.wikiprotest.com

[tannerly]

Ham radio works where cell phones don't

Ham radio works where cell phones don't. I frequently hike / kayak / camp well beyond the reach of cell phone towers. With a hand-held ham radio not much bigger than most cellphones I am always able to reach someone.

[jasonlivy]

Can't rely on cell phones...

I am not trying to solicite anything. This incident should bring
awareness to all that any one of us can get into trouble. We don't
have to go on an huge backcountry expedition, but a simple drive
through the mountains can be tragic. How many more of these go
un published? Hopefully this is a good lesson for all that we need
to be prepared. Day time signalling device (mirror and whistle) and
a night time signalling device (strobe light and whistle) should be
in every car at the bare minimum.

[wilt816]

Kim tragedy

I wonder if it isn't possible to equip aircraft
with a cell phone terminal to receive and send
calls to cell phones that are not within cell
tower range. It would certainly facilitate the
location of people that were lost or injured.
Comments?

[TSSWireless]

Please Accept Our Sympathies

We at TSS-Wireless mourn your loss and are grateful that members of the Kim family were rescued. We will be discussing the public safety benefits of wireless technology on our Cell Tower podcast on iTunes later this week, and exactly how this technology works.
SK

[gigdog]

Cell Phones & life lines...

If we as human beings would set aside the "money" thing & not wonder how to make a "buck" off of a service, the overall problem would not exist! Lets install the necessary devices where service is needed so there is no "dead" areas. We have the technologies to do this but because of the "ol mighty dollar, the end result is a tragedy!
These kind of things in today's world should not exist but they do & will continue until the human race starts caring more about each other than just a "how much money can we make" attitude!
Money should not be everything!

[jp59]

cell phone lifelines

My husband, a hunter, was actively involved on websites with other hunters of the area trying to figure out where the Kim family was located. We were pulling for him.
As a long time resident of Oregon's coastal mountains, we know how unforgiving Oregon's ocean, mountains, weather can be; plus GPS and cell phones are useless in much of Oregon. They don't work when you're in a canyon, behind a mountain, in timber and not in line of site of or out of range of a cell tower.
Ironically, last week, the planning commission that I sit on ruled against a cell tower that would have filled in one of the many dark areas along the coast. Many opponents complained that it would be unsightly. We have this problem with every application.
So- I think technology needs to address this issue. I know we can conceal them as church steeples, pine trees etc., but this isn't really effective in the "wilderness."
Perhaps some sort of cheap micro-technology could be developed so that installations could be more ubiquitously placed along roadways.

[thedjway]

cell phones as lifelines

If the technology is there for the "good" guys to use, it is also there for stalkers to harass their victims, pimps to manage their interests, even those who may cleverly seek to create a false reality for their prey to feel secure when they are actually being victimized. The industry should make the technology to track cell phones known and generally available so we can know of the possibilities and conduct ourselves accordingly. Ahhhhh, technology; where would we be without it!

[Coxls]

Cell Phone Lifeline

It's unfortunate that anyone would disagree that a tower would be placed in a remote area due to it's physical features. Would they diagree due to the architecture of a hospital if it saved lives?

Wake up America....or other off shore companies will place their towers in those remote areas and they'll build the road to the towers!!

[bearjie]

Tracking cell phones with Mobile receivers

It is possible to use mobile transceivers to track cell phones of lost or missing people. The mobile transceivers could be mounted on aircraft and vast areas could be covered in very little time. The transceivers would "ping" the missing persons phone and could triangulate the position of the cell phone with other transceivers on other aircraft.
On another note:
I am from the Grants Pass area and am very familiar with the Bear camp road on which the Kim's were found. My friend and I once helped rescue a family that was stuck in the snow on Bear camp road and know how treacherous the road can get.

My sympathies to the Kim Family.

[Born4Fun]

Technology vs. Cost

I read with great sorrow of James's passing. Rather than debate the merits of mobile cell towers or flying repeaters why not mandate more cell sites in remote areas to increase coverage? It could be paid for from a tax break on telco profits or from a (small) tax on each account or even on each line if really necessary. I can't speak for all cellular users but I wouldn't mind spending an extra dollar a month if I knew that service coverage was increasing rapidly in the outer reaches of my coverage areas.
I hope that we all learn a lesson from James' death: We are the ones responsible for our own safety. When traveling into remote areas we should all be aware of the perils that surround us and pack emergency gear such as matches, flashlights, flares,extra batteries and alternative emergency communications gear such as ELTs,CB radios or Ham gear if you are licensed. Let's not have more families suffer similar fates.

[mido75]

Simple

There two types of cell phones, the first one is GSM and the second one is via satellite signal. For example, most verizon cell phones carry GPS device that can be turned on and off. The only issue with that is rural area, if the signal is too week it might give you problems. That is why cell phone companies need to increase their coverage towers for GSM or satellite powered phone to allow strong signals.
If you get lost, you turn on your GPS and it wills pickup your location and through an application such Verizon navigator it will guide you to safe area.
Another thing, some cell phone companies allow both options for their customers GSM and satellite, for example if you to Europe you can use your cell phone there because their system is GSM DRIVEN.

[Hopalong59]

New phones worthless in remote areas

Kim was 30 miles from a major city. A tri mode phone with analog might have made it. The lastest phones like MOTO Razor and 815 dont have analog.
Giant step backwards in techonlogy.

[namakota]

Analog is not a solution

A trimode mobile phone using analog will drain a battery in under 6 minutes. Analog mode is NOT a reasonable solution. The federal government could look into providing more/better communication service in BLM and US Forest Service for their own use as well as lost civilans. Using a vehicle cell antenna will also help ( >+3dB )and in E911 mode after a number of pings a tower should boost it's signal. Citizens and cell phone consumers should insist on all carriers to begin to atleast provide E911 service in remote areas...

[trishbrooks]

Get Me Now Technologies

Azos AI is developing emergency communication in cell phones. We showed our technology at DEMO 06 and are incorporating GPS with our capability on prototype smartphones: HP, Q and TREO. We plan to hit the road in January to expose Service Providers and OEM's to our technology and hopefully emergency communication could be in the hands of consumers by next year.

[trishbrooks]

Get Me Now Technologies

Azos AI is developing emergency communication in cell phones. We showed our technology at DEMO 06 and are incorporating GPS with our capability on prototype smartphones: HP, Q and TREO. We plan to hit the road in January to expose Service Providers and OEM's to our technology and hopefully emergency communication could be in the hands of consumers by next year.

[skelaney]

bring portable antennas to the mountain

Does anyone know whether these rescue teams actually find out
which cell service the missing people are using and bring a
transportable cell tower to the general area they are located in?
This would give them an opportunity to get service where they are
and aid in their own rescue by connecting a phone call. I don't
think it's a very difficult procedure. It just takes a little cooperation
with the cell companies.