Can 911 find you if you call on a cell phone?
If you call 911 from a land line at your house, the dispatchers know where you are and can send someone to come help you. But more and more people are giving up land lines every day in favor of just using a cell phone. And if you call 911 from a cell phone, you’re a lot harder to track down. Sure, you can tell them where you are, if you actually know where you are and have the presence of mind to relay that information in the course of your emergency. But what if you’re just out rambling around?
Well, help is on the way. Although it may take a while to get here. By the end of the year, the FCC will start implementing an eight-year plan to make it easier for 911 responders to find you based on cell phone location.
Which is great, but eight years? Jeff Cohen of the FCC’s public safety and homeland security bureau joins us to discuss the technological and regulatory hurdles that must be cleared to improve the system.
Also on this show, we talk to Rob Cockerham, creator of the Incredibly Depressing Mega Millions Lottery Simulator. It’s an online tool designed to make you realize you’re throwing money down the toilet when you play the lottery.
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