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Originally Posted by Sumter911

Good afternoon folks,

Location technology for cell phone calls to 911 comes in two flavors - network based and handset based. The former relies on triangulation between a minimum of three cell towers, the latter relies on GPS technology built in to the phone. Handset location tends to be more accurate than network based.

However, there is another piece, and that is the time it takes for your wireless provider to ascertain your location regardless of the technology used. Calls will usually come in to the comm center with what is known as "Phase 1" location information - this is strictly the cell tower, sector and provider carrying the call along with a callback number. It takes another 30-45 seconds under optimum conditions for the "phase 2" data to be collected by your provider and relayed to the comm center - this provides our call takers with your X/Y location and populates it on the county map.

In addition, if the cell tower in question is on or close to a county border, it is possible a sector is set to route to the opposite county you are located in. The call takers in the tri-county area are fully aware of this and are trained to recognize when a call needs to be transferred to a neighboring county and will do so as quickly as possible - BUT - they will still verify the location they see you at on the map is indeed your location. There is a margin of error with the location information and the FCC is quite generous with how big that margin can be (much to the chagrin of every 911 coordinator and call taker in the state).

The other common question is folks with non-local area codes on their cell phone - the tower system is area code agnostic and will route your 911 call no matter what the area code based on which tower, sector and provider you are "connected" to when you call.

I would be happy to address any other questions or discuss this further in this forum, or if you want to discuss Sumter County 911 related matters offline you can reach me at 352-569-1600.

Thank you,
Silas

Thank you!