Sunday, August 23, 1998

Denver testing satellite-assisted cellular phones

By STEVEN K. PAULSON

Associated Press

DENVER -- When Karen Nelson's pickup truck slipped into a ditch during a South Dakota snowstorm last year and she called for help on her cellular phone, it took 40 hours to pinpoint her location.

New technology being tested in Denver could cut the time to locate such a call to three seconds, using cell phones as modified satellite tracking devices.

Denver gets about 75,000 emergency cell phone calls a year, but emergency dispatchers have no clue where the caller is located.

"When someone calls in using a cell phone, we're basically back in the Stone Age," said Capt. Ed Connors, who heads the police communications center.

The testing program is in response to a congressional deadline that gives cities until 2001 to develop emergency systems that will locate a wireless call to within 125 yards.

In testing so far, the system has done much better. A chip that can be installed for $5 to $8 in new phones sends a signal to a computer that helps a Global Positioning Satellite, or GPS, locate the caller and report the position to within 12 feet.

When a call is made with one of the phones, information shows up in the form of a red dot on a map in a computer at an emergency operator's desk. The map can even show which side of the street a driver is on.

The U.S. military used GPS during the Gulf War, outfitting soldiers with handheld trackers to help them find their way.

The government has long had the ability to locate transmitters using what is known as triangulation. But it is a cumbersome and time-consuming process requiring two or three people to drive around trying to pin down a signal's location using radio receivers, a compass and a map.

Recent advances have allowed them to narrow down the location by determining what cell phone tower is being used. That can put rescuers within a mile or so of the caller.

But in crowded cities, where tall buildings and heavy transmission traffic scramble signals, that isn't good enough for someone who may be having a heart attack or other emergency, said Ellen Kirk, vice president of marketing for SnapTrack Inc., which developed the technology being tested in Denver.

Ms. Nelson was safely rescued but had no food or water while she waited.

"I just sat there," she said. "I couldn't go anywhere or do anything so I just made a tent out of my sleeping bag and put it over top of me and put my cell phone in the middle of my tummy and just sat there."

Several manufacturers have tentatively agreed to install the chip in new phones if Denver decides to use the system.