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York County, Virginia, Fire & Life Safety Launches Virginia's First ``Locator'' of Wireless 9-1-1 Calls
YORKTOWN, Va.--April 16, 2002--The York County Department of Fire & Life Safety has recently
implemented a new technology system that allows the County to determine the address and location of someone making a 9-1-1 call from
a wireless cell phone.
This E9-1-1 Phase II deployment is the first of its kind in Virginia and is the first in the United States that utilizes EFLT (Enhanced
Forward Link Trilateration) technology within the handset of the cellular phone to determine a caller's location in an emergency.
Explaining the new wireless emergency communications system at a press conference today in Yorktown, VA, Terry Hall, York
County's Communications Manager, said: "Verizon Wireless is the first wireless carrier in Virginia to comply with Phase II of the Federal
Communications Commission's mandate. We have been pleased with Verizon Wireless' and TeleCommunication Systems' (TCS)
(Nasdaq:TSYS) leadership in the first office application (FOA) and testing of Phase II technology in York County. They are now poised
to extend this technology to other 9-1-1 centers throughout Hampton Roads, each of whom has been working diligently in a regional
approach to ensure the upgrade of 9-1-1 equipment to handle this new technology."
Verizon Wireless and their E9-1-1 service provider, TCS, will be expanding this location information technology throughout Hampton
Roads to the Cities of Hampton, Newport News, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg and the
County of James City. It is anticipated other wireless carriers providing services to Hampton Roads will be implementing Phase II
services to the region in compliance with FCC mandates. "9-1-1" has been designated as the "Universal Emergency Number" for citizens
throughout the United States. It is currently estimated that 40 percent of all 9-1-1 calls originate from cellular phones, and that by the year
2005, the majority of 9-1-1 calls will be from cellular phones.
Where E9-1-1 services are deployed, a 9-1-1 call from a cellular phone is automatically forwarded to the nearest public safety
answering point (PSAP), or 9-1-1 call center, and these new technologies aid 9-1-1 operators in locating a caller in distress when they
are unable to determine or communicate their location. Many Counties in the United States have yet to deploy the important technology
now offered to the citizens of York County.
TCS' founder and CEO, Maurice B. Tose, a York County native and graduate of York High School in the county, said, "TCS is
elated to assist York County in its role as the leader in bringing this essential, life-saving service to the citizens of Virginia."
Since the completion of its Phase I deployment in October 2001, York County's 9-1-1 Center has seen a 54 percent increase in its
9-1-1 call volume. With Phase I deployment, a 10-digit phone number is displayed allowing the 9-1-1 operator to call back if there is a
disconnection. In the final phase of wireless deployment (Phase II), Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and local, land-based
network wireless radio signals are utilized to find the caller wherever they are by relaying specific latitude and longitude location
information called Automatic Location Identification (ALI) to the local 9-1-1 call center. If a cell phone is equipped with a GPS receiver,
as will be required by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), any citizen calling 9-1-1 on a cell phone will be easier to
locate during an emergency due to the pinpoint information provided through use of TCS' location technology.
According to Mr. Hall, "As a public service, we are providing York County citizens the following reminders for their use when dialing
9-1-1 from a cellular phone:
1) Remain calm & stay on the line until the dispatcher tells you
it is okay to hang up.
2) Be familiar with your surroundings and be prepared to provide
the Dispatcher with an address or location of the emergency.
3) Know your cellular phone number and the name of your cellular
provider."
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