Cell phones find respect in aftermath

Published 9:00 pm Friday, September 14, 2001

San Francisco Chronicle

Cell phones, which have been vilified as a luxury for the self-absorbed, adopted a new role in Tuesday’s tragedy: human lifeline.

A number of passengers on the doomed jets spoke their last words to loved ones into mobile phones. Their conversations are helping investigators piece together a case against the terrorists.

Several people trapped in the rubble of the toppled World Trade Center placed calls on their cell phones, and at least one was rescued because he was able to describe his location.

"It’s such a great tool," said Dave Whitt, spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department, which has deployed an urban search-and-rescue team task force to New York City.

"Consider the difference between someone calling from a hard line saying, ‘My husband was on the 90th floor’ vs. the husband calling on a cell phone saying, ‘I was on the 90th floor, and now I’m on the fourth floor. This is what I hear, this is what I see, this is who I’m with,’ " Whitt said.

In many cases, cell phones are more useful than radios for emergency workers, he said, because they work anywhere in the country. A number of radios are incompatible with systems outside a district, he said, a particular concern when rescue workers are called to assist other regions.

April Sands, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, said she wasn’t surprised that people turned to cell phones.

She was surprised, however, that those calling from the air were able to find a signal.

"The cell phone is not designed for air-to-ground communications," she said. "With the planes flying low, it helped with the reception."

Of course, cell phones do have downsides.

One, as Whitt pointed out, is their relatively short battery life.

Another is that an emergency call from a cell phone doesn’t reveal the caller’s location.

The Federal Communications Commission wants to change that. The agency is requiring all carriers to begin implementing technology by Oct. 1 that will pinpoint a caller’s location through a global positioning satellite system, either as a chip in the phones or network upgrade.

This enhanced-911 or "e-911" technology would enable emergency service providers to locate callers to within 164 to 984 feet.