Editorial

911 needs a revamp

Amber Yake - News Editor

Think 911 will save your life? Think again.

In December, the Globe and Mail did an in-depth investigation into the 911 service in Canada. They concluded that the outdated system is costing lives.

In 2008, a man was beaten and dumped in a field outside of Brooks, AB. He called 911 from his cellphone but 911 dispatch couldn’t pinpoint his location and his body was found two days later. The outdated service has been the cause for at least three other fatal incidents in Canada in 2008.

If you’re like me, maybe you always thought that if you were in an emergency, where you didn’t know where you are or cannot speak then 911 dispatches could simply trace your call. That’s not the case in Canada. If you’re calling from a cellphone or an internet phone, your call cannot be pinpointed to your exact location.

The United States mandated cellphone companies to update there networks in 2001. If you dial 911 from your cellphone in the U.S., they can pinpoint your location within seconds. Why isn’t it like this in Canada?

Money.

There’s no profit in 911 and wireless companies won’t make any money if they invest in the 911 system. The wireless companies are insisting that public money be used to pay for this.

But wait, I pay 0.75 a month for a 911 fee on my TELUS phone bill. That works out to $9 a year. There are millions of people paying that same fee, or one like it. So people are paying for this 911 service, the money just isn’t being used properly. Where is all that money going? Nobody knows.

Cell phone companies are not required to disclose what they do with the money. Canada’s wireless companies collect over $100 million a year from 911 fees. While a portion of that money goes toward the 911 system, the CRTC does not regulate where the rest goes and the money certainly isn’t going towards saving lives.

This may sound morbid but I’ve imagined myself in dire situations before. What if someone breaks into my house and I only have time to dial 911 from my cell phone and drop it. What if I’m in an accident in the middle of nowhere and I don’t know where I am. What if those things happen to you or someone you know.

At the end of January two children went missing in a snowstorm on Lake Winnipeg. They called 911 from a cellphone but it did them no good since they did not know their exact location. Police searched for them for nearly three hours and were lucky to find them alive; if this had happened in the U.S. their location would have been known within seconds.

Since the Globe and Mail published their article, the CRTC has now stated that all Canadian cellphone companies have one year to update their services and technology so that locations can be pinpointed when someone dials 911 from their cellphone.

The CRTC said that cellphone companies should not be charging consumers more for these services.

Damn right they shouldn’t. We already pay a 911 fee that is clearly not doing us any good. Why should we pay more just to put money into the cellphone company’s pockets?

The fact that it’s 2009 and cellphone companies are just now being mandated to fix their services is pathetic. This technology has been in place in the U.S. since 2001.