The first two markets, Austin and Dallas, Texas are scheduled to go live in September 2000. In 1995, the FCC mandated emergency E-911 service for wireless phones in the US by October 2001. Cell-Locate was waiting for carriers to come to it for its technology that supports this market. Seeing the writing on the wall, Cell-Locate has decided to go to them instead.
Wireless technology poses a challenge for wireless carriers.
Although a phone number on a wireline network can pinpoint a caller's location very easily, this is not the case with a wireless phone number. More than 100,000 wireless 911 calls are made each day and emergency workers need to be able to quickly locate the person who is placing the call. A GPS-based solution relies on installing GPS technology in handsets and communicating with satellites. A network solution requires that carriers install new technology in their networks which can be expensive and time consuming. While adding GPS may seem like an obvious choice, the network solution could be superior.