CBS News reported on the tragic death of James Kim, who died in the Klamath Mountains of Oregon while seeking aid for his wife and children, who were snow-bound in their car after making a wrong turn into unplowed and impassable roads. Fortunately, James' wife Kati and daughters Penelope and Sabine were rescued and survived the ordeal. In this story, mobile technology is credited with helping save lives. By doing so, it points out how reliance on technology may put lives at risk.
Edge Wireless LLC, a member of Cingular Wireless' network, engineers Eric Fuqua and Noah Pugsley were credited with using cell phone records, computer modeling, and creativity to help authorities narrow their search for the missing Kim family.
The engineers were able to trace a "ping" from the Kims' phone when it received the text messages. They located not only the cell tower in Glendale, Ore., from which the messages were relayed, but a specific area west of the town where the phone received them.
The two created a map to further limit the search by eliminating areas where network coverage did not extend, and through their efforts, an even greater tragedy may have been avoided.
Inconsistent network quality and unreachable areas, whether they are in the rugged terrain of the Klamath Mountains or an unintended Faraday cage of reinforced concrete in an urban parking garage, remain a bane of consumer wireless communication intended for emergency or mission critical purposes. A wireless phone call could have brought timely help to the stranded Kims, but the very nature of the terrain that put them in peril was also responsible for their inability to complete a call.
The FCC's Enhanced 911 (E911) legistlation of 1996 required that by 1998, operators be able to identify originating calls within an accuracy of one mile to the closest cell tower. By 2001, operators were to implement automatic location identifycation (ALI) and be able to identify the location of the caller, not just the closest tower, to an accuracy of 100 meters. The tragic end is that when the call could not be completed, the mandated emergency services were moot. Fuqua and Pugsley went above and beyond to trace a tower ping from an SMS message. Still, with respect to personal safety or mission critical needs, we cannot yet rely on land-based wireless telecom.
Photo credit: cellreception.com
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