Technology Changes After September 11, 2001
The FCC said that 20 percent of American’s have ditched their cell phones, making it difficult for the 911 centers to locate the callers. They stated that; wireless 911 calls create new challenges in locating the callers because their systems locate land-line callers by a billing address associated with the phone number. Since 9/11, the FCC main priority has been to improve their locating abilities. So far they’ve came up with the solutions to help.
2. They have also made if mandatory for carriers to report to 911 centers when their network goes down. This will help response efforts in emergencies and natural disasters.
3. FCC chairman is implementing a “next-generation 9-1-1”, which he calls NG911. These new upgrades will able people to contact 911 via texts, data, photos, and videos.
The FCC is doing a great job learning from September 11 and making sustainable developments updating their technologies to accommodate a more efficient emergency response to future victims. However I see two problems that might arise if another attack, much like 9/11, takes place and would render the FCC’s new implements useless.
1. Like we discussed in class, all the cell phones around immediate area of the attack, wouldn’t work. The carrier’s network went down because they had their antennas on the north and south towers. People making rescue calls and people trapped inside the rubble weren’t able to make phone calls. So, if the major cell phone carriers don’t modify their networks to handle mass volumes of calls, then all the updates that the 911 emergency centers won’t make a difference.
2. The FCC stated that 911 emergency centers were overloaded with phone calls on September 11, there call center’s systems went down due to the mass amounts of call coming in. They said call center employs felt helpless because there was nothing they could do to get in contact with the victims and vice versa. So, if there system isn’t update to handle mass mounts of emergency phone calls, then like I said with the cell phone carriers, none of the measures of effectiveness the FCC made to 911 centers will make any difference because they won’t be able to handle the amount of calls.
Like I said, I think it is great the FCC is making changes with communication efforts. But, if another 9/11 attacks takes place, and the cell phone carriers and 911 emergency centers can’t handle a mass amount of calls, then all these measures of effectiveness won’t make any difference. I feel like we would be right back a square one, just like that tragic Tuesday morning with nobody could make phone calls.
The 911 Emergency Centers on 9/11 faced something probably all emergency personnel don’t ever want to face and that is an almost immediate crash of the system, leaving thousands helpless. It is great that the FCC took the initiative to upgrade the system following all the dropped and lost calls during the events on 9/11. When patrons would use their cell phones to call emergency services, the emergency center would locate the people using the billing address registered to that cell phone. This is not effective because most people are not at their billing address when they make a call to 911. This is a huge flaw in the old system which doesn’t make for effective responses because it takes more time to ask the patron their location because sometimes people are hard to understand in an emergency situation because of emotions.
ReplyDeleteSince the FCC upgraded the 911 Emergency Centers locating abilities by signing contracts with cell phone carriers, this will increase the ability of emergency response. I believe this is a huge step in the effectiveness of emergency response systems as technology increases, the FCC should keep up with the technology. For example, I had to call 911 last week in one of my classes because an individual had a seizure and we needed EMS. After calling 911 on my Droid, the top notification bar turned red and stayed red for about 5 minutes after I hung up with the 911 Center. I didn’t have to tell the emergency center where I was they asked me if I was on such and such road near this building, and all I had to say is yes that’s correct.
However, I do agree with you Zach in that if the cell phone carriers do not update their systems and networks the FCCs changes and upgrades won’t be worth any of the effort they made. Upgrades have to be done all across the board with communications not just the FCC updating the 911 emergency centers.
I do have to question the FCC’s look at a next generation 911 emergency centers using texts from cell phones that could include data, photos, and videos. This in my opinion would cause other problems for the FCC and 911 Emergency Centers. Not only will this increase in data affect the systems used to store and read this data coming in, but how will it be coded into the 911 emergency systems? How will the cell phone carriers help the FCC adapt a system like this? The centers and cell phone carriers have to make sure they have back up towers and lines that they can activate during times of crisis to make sure there is a backup in case the main towers go down. They also have to take into consideration the amount of data, they will have to make sure they can sort the information and have it viewed in an easy to use system. The system also has to have large servers or hardware with lots of memory space to hold all the information as well.
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ReplyDeleteZack, I feel that you did a great job explaining in detail about how the cell phones were rendered useless during the 9/11 attacks in 2001. I found this topic very interesting in class that night because it is amazing how much Americans rely on their cell phones these days. You can do anything from your phone from checking the weather to talking to your friends. I can only imagine the terror in a disaster and not being able to use your own phone. It seems that you found a lot more statistical information about the cell phones being down than we went over in class last this previous week. You did a great job analyzing how the cell phones were rendered useless, however I feel that you could have gone more in depth with other technologies used for instance during and after the 9/11 attacks.
ReplyDeleteAnother one of the many technologies that was implemented after the attacks was the use of a handheld GPS for the rescue personnel. Using GPS can save a lot of time and lives by finding people in the wreckage faster after really any type of natural disaster or terrorist attack. Another useful technology I found in my article was the implementation of fiber optics instead of bundled together copper cables, which had high chances of single point power failures opposed to the fiber optic cables. New York City would have been so much better off if only they would have had a stronger hazard mitigation plan in effect. Overall I feel that you did a great job addressing the cell phone issue, but I feel you good have broadened your overall topic to changes in technology since the 9/11 attacks and how we as Americans are now either better prepared for the next attack, or how we could possibly become better prepared.