Wireless system can pinpoint locations.

Byline: REBECCA NOLAN The Register-Guard

A disoriented and frantic man called 911 on his cellular phone.

His car had just rolled over on an isolated logging road. His hand was broken, he was bleeding, and he had no idea where he was.

An emergency dispatcher at the Central Lane Communications Center in Eugene tried to pinpoint his location, but the man grew more and more hysterical with each passing moment.

The dispatcher eventually sent help and the man survived, no thanks to current cellular phone technology, which does not provide precise location information for 911 callers.

That will soon change for four Oregon counties when Bend-based Edge Wireless becomes the first wireless telephone provider west of St. Louis, Mo., to complete the second phase of Enhanced 911.

The first stage equipped all dispatch centers nationwide with technology that identified the physical origin of all landline 911 calls.

By the end of summer, dispatchers in Douglas, Coos, Josephine and Curry counties will able to pinpoint the exact location of wireless phone users as well.

The Federal Communications Commission mandated that wireless service providers have locator technology in place by October but most companies missed the deadline, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said during a Thursday news conference.

"People said, `Oh, it just couldn't be done,' " Wyden said. "Oregon is showing that it can be done."

Wyden called the new technology a critical development that will provide "faster, more immediate service at a time when even a few minutes can mean a critical difference."

Lane County could have Enhanced 911 by the end of the year, said Ken Keim, director of technology and response for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.

About 35 percent to 40 percent of all Oregon 911 calls are made on wireless phones, Keim said.

Most of the time, callers can tell dispatchers where they are. But when the caller doesn't know or cannot speak, dispatchers have no idea where to send help.

Edge Wireless uses global-positioning technology developed by Airbiquity Inc. to relay location information via satellite to the nearest dispatch center. By simply pushing a small button on the phone's battery pack, the caller activates the system.

The GPS accessory is compatible with Nokia-brand wireless phones and is available at Edge Wireless retail outlets in Oregon.

Other wireless service providers are in the process of developing similar technologies. The final FCC deadline is December 2005.

Oregon wireless users pay a 75-cent monthly 911 tax. Much of that money - about $12 million - has been set aside to pay for the installation of necessary GPS software at every Oregon 911 center, Keim said.

"Oregon does not have a problem with funding this," Keim said.

But the tracking system is not perfect, officials said.

GPS technology does not work indoors, although it will store the last outdoor location and relay that information to dispatchers. It also might not work properly from inside a deep canyon or ravine, or any area where the satellite signal might be blocked.

The technology could have helped the man stranded out on the logging road with no idea where he was, said Bill McMurray of the National Emergency Number Association and communications manager for the Marin County, Calif., sheriff's office.

"Listening to that call this morning raised the hairs on the back of my neck because I know this is happening 100 or 200 times a day," McMurray said. "We have not been able to serve our public correctly, and we've exasperated our dispatchers time and time again.

"Now Oregon can serve as a road map to the rest of the country."