Archived from groups: alt.cellular.cingular (
More info?)
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 14:08:15 -0400, Isaiah Beard
<sacredpoet@sacredpoet.com> wrote:
>Tropical Haven wrote:
>
>>>Is the Razr V3 e911 compliant?
>>
>>
>> With the GSM carriers, the phones are not e911 compliant, but the entire network
>> is, meaning they use the towers to pinpoint the location of the phone instead of
>> GPS tracking. Rumor has it that CDMA carriers chose e911 at the handset level
>> so they could force customers into new phones with new contracts in order to
>> comply.
>
>
>That would be rather dumb, considering it's Sprint, and not the
>customer, who must pay the fines if they fail to comply with the hadnset
>sales targets.
>
>The answer is in Cingular's own quaterly reports to the FCC dating back
>to 2001:
>
>http://www.mobile.commerce.net/story.php?story_id=569
>
>EOTD technology is significantly more compliated to deploy, especially
>in areas where major highways are the only coverage points. Why?
>Becuase the cell sites are often in a "string of pearls" arrangement
>along the highway, which generally doewsn't support triangulation very well.
>
>If you have a GPS assist in the handset, however, you don't have to
>worry as much about this.
>
> > It would be impractical for GSM carriers to do anything at the handset
>> level because they would have to ensure that your SIM would work only with GPS
>> phones, and they would probably have to disallow foreign roamers who would not
>> meet the FCC requirement.
>
>That's pretty much true, which is why GSM carriers are stuck with using
>EOTD or TDOA.
Keep in mind that you get a pretty good distance to tower feature that
is built into GSM. That would give you a ring if there was only a
single omnidirectional antenna.
I believe most sites use 120 degree sectors and even with 180 on a
highway it narrows the location down pretty well.
Add in overlap to the next site and the chance that the caller may
actually be on the highway and you get even closer.
I had two different models of GPS phones (i730 and i830) with GPS and
the GPS absolutely did not work at all even standing on one foot out
in a field.
Nextel gave a presentation about their location services
implementation at the county comm center and I asked them if iDen had
the same built in feature as GSM and they said no.
My personal preference is network based rather than GPS especially
since GPS sure won't work in a building.