Sidebar: Attack in U.S. Would Tax Emergency Tracking for Mobile Phone Users

Computerworld - If attacks similar to those that occurred last week in London were to happen in the U.S., it would be difficult for emergency crews to locate people trying to summon help via their cell phones, according to experts.
Despite efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to beef up mobile services so cell phones could be used to help track down people, "we're in a sad state of affairs in the U.S.," said Jack Gold, an independent analyst at J. Gold Associates in Northboro, Mass. "If we faced a major disaster like London and had to locate injured people on cell phones today, maybe one or two could be located, but the system couldn't handle hundreds of calls.
"Location [tracking] is not an easy thing to do," he added.
Part of the problem with using enhanced 911 (E911) wireless services would be too many people making calls at the same time, Gold said. Also, technical complexities and costs have slowed efforts by wireless carriers to implement automatic systems that could be used to locate cell phone callers, Gold and other experts said.
"It's a very difficult problem, given the wireless infrastructure," Gold said. "Don't count on being rescued with your wireless phone unless you know exactly where you are" and can tell an emergency operator clearly.
Not There Yet
Colleen Boothby, an attorney at Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby LLP in Washington, said wireless E911 is "a lot better than it was five years ago," but she agreed that the service isn't where public officials want it to be because of some "very technical issues."
E911 tracking will become especially complex for voice-over-IP phones, which can be wired or wireless, Boothby and Gold said. The Federal Communications Commission in May set minimum standards to help determine the location of VoIP users, such as requiring VoIP providers to record a street address for a user when he signs up for service.
The dilemma of tracking cell phone users has led to new technologies, including one to be developed through a collaboration announced last week between TeleCommunication Systems Inc. (TCS) in Annapolis, Md., and Skyhook Wireless Inc. in Boston. Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System will be integrated with routing technology in TCS's VoIP E911 service, said Skyhook CEO Ted Morgan.
Skyhook locates and records thousands of Wi-Fi access points in major cities and keeps them in a database, so when a Wi-Fi call is made, the location of the access point and others nearby can be sent to emergency personnel, Morgan said.