CYSecurity was pleased to introduce you to a new, leading-edge wireless location technology called Pinging a few months ago, however ping confidence became a major concern of ours as clients sometimes disagreed with location accuracy. And since it is the wireless carriers who actually perform the pings, we decided to investigate the accuracy of the technology to determine whether we and our clients shared unrealistic expectations of what could be delivered.
The final report on Project Locate (Locate Our Citizens At Times of Emergency), which was commissioned by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO), a group that has long been concerned by the limitations of the technology, revealed the startling truth: carriers are often unable to come within 300 meters of a 911 caller!
Seven carriers were tested in seven different communities across the USA. A total of 203 telephone calls per carrier were made from randomly selected areas within the sample communities. Two carriers tested used network technology primarily while five used handset technology, meaning they use global positioning system satellites to locate callers. Generally speaking, the network solution works better in urban areas where it may be difficult for a satellite signal to penetrate buildings, but not so well in rural areas because of a lack of towers.
An analysis was also made of the number of concerns received from our customers vs. the total number of pings performed. Our conclusion is that prepaid cell phone pings are approximately 50% accurate while pings to regular plan cell phones are approximately 85% accurate.
We now understand that there are limitations to current position determining equipment and that it is certainly not perfect - however its as good as todays technology allows it to be. It is reported that 253,000 calls are made to 911 from cell phones each day in the US and Canada, and that 12.4 % of households are wireless only.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not anticipate that so many consumers would abandon wireline phones in homes and offices. Minor variations in location data can have potentially tragic impact on the ability of first responders to find emergencies inside dense residential complexes and offices. The increased use of wireless phones in multiple-story buildings will also require potential inclusion of elevation information in the future. The FCC has also noted the increasing use of wireless phones in homes and businesses and has determined that such indoor use demands even greater levels of location accuracy.
The technology is still in its infancy, however it is a foregone conclusion that it will radically improve in the near future. And CYSecurity will bring it to you as soon as it becomes available.
