No landline= safety problem?

[Chemistry Guy]

When my wife and I bought our new house we decided not to get a landline since we both have cellphones. Is this a safety issue? If I were to call 911 on my cell and be unable to speak, do the police have a database that would show my address? If not, how would the dispatcher even know what police office to dispatch? I do have my local village police number saved on the phone, but I have waited a long time for someone to pick up when calling that number in the past.

What about cable-based landlines? Does anyone know if my address pops up on the 911 operator's board if I were to make a call from a Time-Warner digital phone or the like?

 

[desidog]

Do you get cell service there? Do you frequently let your cell battery die?

I haven't had a land line in 12 years. If a BG wanted to isolate you by cutting the power and phone cords in the middle of the night...it's a whole lot harder to do successfully if you have a cellphone. Just remember to keep it charged, and get a car charger too.

To be safe, i'd call your local cop shop and ask about their cell-triangulation ability, and of course, their response time to a potential call from your property.

Now, more importantly, with no phone or internet, how are you going to surf THR?

 

[omegaflame]

Do criminals even bother cutting the landlines now that everyone and their dog has a cell?

 

[smhbbag1]

If you have high-speed internet, consider adding a MagicJack. www.magicjack.com

It's $20 per YEAR (no monthly bill), and can be used anywhere you have a computer. You can input your address, so that it will show up on any 911 call, and you can change that address, if you take the phone with you on the road.

 

[hso]

If I were to call 911 on my cell and be unable to speak, do the police have a database that would show my address?

No and since it's a mobile phone you wouldn't actually know where you were anyway.

What about cable-based landlines? Does anyone know if my address pops up on the 911 operator's board if I were to make a call from a Time-Warner digital phone or the like?

From what I've heard, it depends upon the service, but the only way to find out is to contact the manager of your 911 service and your cable/internet provider.

I work in an industry where we have people performing work in remote areas at times. We've learned to check 911 service ahead of time when we're operating near county or state boundaries to make sure that a call for EMS will reach the right organization. In one area where the border of 3 states met we found that a difference in location by as little as a quarter mile determined which tower and what state received a 911 call. Lesson learned for us was that any time anything other than a traditional land line telephone was used we had to put some extra effort into being sure how to reach emergency response for the area we were actually working.

 

[9mmepiphany]

It is a safety issue depending on how well you maintain your cell phone, you cell coverage and your comfort level.

The only sure way,and there are exceptions even to this, for 911 to know your location is through a landline...because it has a fixed location and is routed to the nearest EMS/LE dispatch center. Also bear in mind that if you are using a phone based on the internet, that it goes out when you lose power

 

[Birdmang]

There is a function on most cell phones in the "security" tab of the settings that says "location." Mine can be set to "off" or "911 only"

Anyone know what these mean/are for?

 

[wulfhart]

Birdmang, I think that you may be referring to the locking feature. It will require a password to dial unless you are calling 911. I could however be wrong about whatever setting you are seeing on the phone.


Within 2 years this won't be an issue and in a lot of places it shoudn't be an issue now.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/wireless911srvc.html

I would keep the cell phone and drop the Lan Line unless you live somewhere that you don't get service.

 

[Shadow 7D]

It depends on the EMS system, many phones have either a GPS or triangulation functions (actually I believe all new phones do) that can be turned off, but even in 'off' it will still notify 911 of your location, just realize that it can be off by a bit. So you should get in the habit of giving your location. And realize that many places operate on old infrastructure, so, imagine this, you call 911, and 911 has to call your phone company for them to give your location...

realize that the same phone has different features for different companies, one might lock most features and 'give' the phone away with contracts, while another will enable everything and list the same phone a mid level model. One common app is a locater feature, so you can track your wife, kids etc. On many smart phones there is a contact feature where you can see if anybody on your contact list is near you. Turning off the GPS doesn't actually turn it off, it just makes it private, and most phones can be remotely accessed by the cell provider, or unfortunately hackers.

 

[rcmodel]

I switched to a cable-based land line several years ago.
The only phone in the house that works when the power goes out is my cell phone.

Even the cordless phones didn't work when I had a real phone line when the power was off though.

rc

 

[oldbanjo]

Omegaflame most security systems use the phone line to call for help. Mine calls me and will call 8 more numbers. Here I would need to call 911 on house phone so they will have 911 address. Here where I live you need to handle things yourself before you call 911 because the police lets everyone go.

 

[Shadow 7D]

And the good security systems have a built in cell that calls 911 if the landline is cut

 

[omegaflame]

Omegaflame most security systems use the phone line to call for help. Mine calls me and will call 8 more numbers. Here I would need to call 911 on house phone so they will have 911 address. Here where I live you need to handle things yourself before you call 911 because the police lets everyone go.

In some cases cutting the landline sets the alarm system off (because it detects it) and so can the remote company.

Also they have (optional) cellular backups which go online while the landline is dead (if it's just something silly like construction). Of course if you set it off it still dials out.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Here are the FCC rules for wireless carriers. The Phase II requirements are in place now. The distance differences are for phones with built in GPS and those without. Most urban areas should be in the Phase II systems by now. Rural areas may not have that since carriers asked for a 5 year rollout.

Basic 911 rules require wireless service providers to:

transmit all 911 calls to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the provider’s service or not.

Phase I Enhanced 911 (E911) rules require wireless service providers to:

within six minutes of a valid request by a PSAP, provide the PSAP with the telephone number of the originator of a wireless 911 call and the location of the cell site or base station transmitting the call.

Phase II E911 rules require wireless service providers to:

within six minutes of a valid request by a PSAP, provide more precise location information to PSAPs; specifically, the latitude and longitude of the caller. This information must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending on the type of technology used.

by September 11, 2012, provide even more precise location information, specifically, information accurate to the closest PSAP. The FCC established a five year phase-in period for this requirement to allow wireless service providers more time to develop this capability. Wireless service providers must report to the FCC annually on their progress in supplying this more accurate location information for PSAPs with Phase II E911 capability.

 

[SSN Vet]

Even during the ice storms that put people around us out of power for a week, our land line telephone still worked.

We get our internet via. DSL and aren't interested in cable t.v. so it's the best option for us.

 

[Chemistry Guy]

Thank you for the information. I think I am going to get some form of internet/cable based phone service to supplement our cell phones.

What motivated the question was that I smelled natural gas coming from my neighbor's house and I couldn't find my cell phone. It turns out he was just having a really hard time getting his gas grill lit, but it made me think that I was very vulnerable should a real emergency occur.

Also, I am very curious about how cell phone triangulation works. A year or two ago I called 911 when I saw an elderly man that appeared dazed walking in the median of a highway in rural Kentucky. My estimate of the location was very rough, as I was on a motorcycle and did not have a GPS. About 30 seconds into my call the operator said that a car was being dispatched, and the police car showed up less than 5 minutes later when I was still on the phone. Even though my phone had a Tennessee area code, the call was routed to a Kentucky dispatcher, and I doubt multiple cars were dispatched. This led me to believe that the 911 dispatcher can tell what cell tower the call is being routed through. If they also had the address of the account holder from the cellphone company I would think that they could make a guess that the person was calling from home if a silent or hangup 911 call was made using the tower nearest to the home address. I guess in an urban area that could be a poor guess, but it might make sense in a less densely populated area.

Edit: Thanks Texas Rifleman, that explains my experience perfectly.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Omegaflame most security systems use the phone line to call for help.

This is probably still true, but it's changing. I installed security alarm systems from 1999 to 2009 until I got laid off. Probably the last two years, I bet I installed 3 cellular dialers for every landline I hooked up. You can use a cellular dialer as a backup to your land line, or as a stand alone unit. There's about a $250 up front price and a small upcharge monthly. At least it was that way with ADT.

Sorry if this is a bit off topic. Just thought someone may want to know.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Its the ping time on your phone, takes two towers, simplest way to explain it is, phone says it's 0900, tower 1 says 0900 + .0012 sec, tower 2 says it 0900+ .0016, that gives you distance, draw a circle and get two x's, third tower narrows it down to one (and can give altitude) or the cell tower just asks your phone for it's GPS coordinates, that system is much easier on GPS equipped phones.

 

[nalioth]

If you have high-speed internet, consider adding a MagicJack. www.magicjack.com

It's $20 per YEAR (no monthly bill), and can be used anywhere you have a computer. You can input your address, so that it will show up on any 911 call, and you can change that address, if you take the phone with you on the road.

Consider that MagicJack's terms of service allow them to load all manner of adware and spyware on to your system, as well as other "gotchas" (just Google "magicjack").

There is a function on most cell phones in the "security" tab of the settings that says "location." Mine can be set to "off" or "911 only"

Anyone know what these mean/are for?

Birdmang, I think that you may be referring to the locking feature. It will require a password to dial unless you are calling 911. I could however be wrong about whatever setting you are seeing on the phone.

Have you seen Minority Report? This setting is what enables this type of personal location-based advertising. Setting it to "911 only" means that the location is only shown to 911 systems.

 

[birdshot8's]

this may have been covered already. i got tired of reading the other posts. Your landline 911 will still work even if you do not have a subscription to a land line service. we all pay a surcharge to fund this feature. works on payphones also.

 

[sidheshooter]

Great info from folks above about how this all works. I wouldn't presume to speak for anyone but myself, but my solution was a family plan for cell phones and ditching the land line. I figure I'll spend the monthly 26 bucks on a new Glock every couple of years to make up for it...

 

[M-Cameron]

even if you dont have landline service....you should still keep a landline phone in the house...because all phones( service or not) are still able to call 911.......


i mean a cheap landline phone can be had for a few bucks.......cheap insurance.

 

[leadcounsel]

Landlines are a huge waste of money. Last time I had one it was probably $50 a month for what... so that I could be harassed all day by telemarketers. No thanks.

I can imagine that I'd never need to quietly call 911.

Spend the money on a security system. It's money better spent!

 

[springmom]

We went wireless, including for our alarm system. No phone lines for BG's to cut for that either

Jan

 

[smhbbag1]

Consider that MagicJack's terms of service allow them to load all manner of adware and spyware on to your system, as well as other "gotchas" (just Google "magicjack").

I've been using it as our primary home phone (thousands of minutes a month) for 4 years, with absolutely no problems. The ads are simply in the magicjack display, not pop-ups as you imply. These so-called problems with it are not really issues.

Their customer service sucks, by reputation, but I've never even had to contact them. What I have done is paid $80 for 4 years of home phone service, with over 100,000 minutes (2k a month for 4 years), and not a single small snippet of a hint of a complaint to make.

I have a serious firewall, and top-rated virus/spyware/adware programs that I run regularly. I care about computer security. And I do not feel one bit worried about magicjack.