Cell phone users to see new charge

MAT-SU -- Many Alaskans toss a cell phone in their backpack when they go hiking, or carry one with them on ATVs and snowmachines -- preparation in case they get lost or hurt. But does it really help?

It does and doesn't. Although having the cell phone along will let public safety personnel keep in communication with the lost or injured party, it won't actually tell them where they're calling from -- not yet. New FCC requirements are seeking to change that, and that change may mean cell phone coverage just got more expensive. About 40 percent of all 911 calls come from cell phones, and now cell phone users will be asked to help pay for equipment to allow their cell phone calls to be traced.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly, on July 15, unanimously passed an ordinance that will allow a 75-cent monthly fee to be collected from cell-phone subscribers for each phone they use. The money will help pay for public safety answering points, such as the Mat-Su Borough and Palmer dispatch to upgrade their equipment to meet new Federal Communications Commission standards.

The ordinance could go into effect locally in a matter of weeks, according to information from Matanuska Telephone Association's Public Relations Coordinator Jackie Whitstine. MTA charges its customers for the service on behalf of the Mat-Su Borough, and channels that money back to the borough for its use. As of Thursday, MTA had not yet received official notice of the assembly's action, but Whitstine said when that notice comes, customers will receive information about the coming charge. She said the company plans to give customers at least a month between the notice and the time the charge shows up on their bill.

"It'll probably take place as quickly as possible," Whitstine said. "We've been collecting the Anchorage e911 fee for … almost a year now, so everything's ready, accounting-wise."

The process is similar to the e911 charges collected by MTA for each land telephone line, which keep location information up-to-date and equipped with appropriate software. The money collected from each cell phone will be used by the borough to update and maintain e911 equipment. The borough's job in the equation is to help provide the exact location of where the call is coming from. The FCC mandates that the location must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters of the caller's location, depending on the type of locator information chosen.

Whitstine said the charges will be levied for each cell phone in use by a subscriber. Customers using pre-paid wireless will be charged as well, although MTA is still ironing out exactly how those customers will be charged.

It's the role of MTA and the four to five other wireless providers who serve the Valley to provide the tools for identifying the phone the call is coming from. Borough Assistant Manager David Germer told the assembly at its meeting there were two primary ways to identify the location of a caller -- through a network-based triangulation, reading signals from different cell phone towers to pinpoint the location of the caller, or by using Global Positioning System-equipped cell phones to identify their location.

Whitstine said MTA has investigated the costs of both options.

"We're trying to choose … the solution that will have the least impact on the customer," Whitstine said. "We looked at the network, but that was too cost-prohibitive. We've chosen to go with an e911-specific phone."

MTA, Whitstine said, will be following FCC requirements that all non-e911-compatible phones are to be taken off the market. With a wireless customer base of around 12,000, that will mean in the next few years customers will need to exchange their existing phones for e911-compatible phones. FCC policy states that, by Dec. 31, 2005, 95 percent of cell phones operated through a company that has chosen MTA's route must be e911-compatible.

The change, Whitstine said, has been significant for the company, but they're not going it alone.

"We're all working together to make this happen, because the parties are all interrelated," Whitstine said. Not only are Alaska cell-phone providers working together to ensure the FCC mandate is fulfilled, but local municipalities and public safety groups are also in on the discussion, making the process seamless.

Although the FCC has mandates on when the changes must be completed, they're not going to happen overnight, according to Whitstine and Germer. Now that the borough has begun the process of collecting the wireless e911 fees, they'll start updating their e911 network to incorporate the new information. Once their upgrade is complete, the borough will send notification to local wireless providers they're ready.

"Once they have that ready to roll, they'll say 'Okay, you have six months,'" Whitstine said.

Wireless companies must complete their preparations and be ready to send information to the borough, or local public safety answering point, by the end of the six months.

Whitstine said although the phones will be equipped with GPS, the location information will only be able to be used to locate 911 callers.

Dennis Brodigan, the borough's deputy emergency services director, said the new technology will be tremendously helpful to people in the public safety and emergency services field.

"One of the issues is the location of where the call is coming from," Brodigan said. "It could be vital information -- it could save someone's life, if they were to dial 911 and become unconscious."

Brodigan said while there haven't, to his knowledge, been a lot of cases in which cell-phone callers have dialed 911 and not been able to be found, that has happened several times in the Lower 48.

"It's only inevitable it'll be repeated up here unless something is done about it," Brodigan said. "Having this capability here just provides that much more security for those who choose to come up and spend their time in the Mat-Su Borough."