Reader George writes in with a question:
Hello Ms. Marco,
I had an interesting experience with Verizon Wireless today…I was having trouble paying my bill using my cell phone, so I called them via land line. I paid my bill and I thought all was well…but I was forwarded to a Customer Service representative who informed me that I was going to be shut down…Apparently my Kyrocera 2135, which is several years old but still quite functional, must be discarded because it doesn’t meet the new FCC rules for having GPS built in it. My normal contract with them expired years ago and I have been on a month-to-month plan…
I was aware of a new law regarding GPS, but I didn’t realize that it was fully in effect yet.
In fact, a quick look at Verizon Wireless online doesn’t indicate that all of the many, many phones they sell are complying with this requirement. A check of the FCC website yielded no assistance.I told the CS rep that I thought he was trying to sell me a new phone and two year contract…naturally he denied this repeatedly…they will hold my phone number until the end of the month…if I don’t get a new phone and a new contract, I will remain cell-less.
Does any of this make any sense to you all???
Many Thanks,
George
Washington, DC
Time for a bedtime story. Forgive us if it’s a little boring, after all—it’s about cellphones and policy and government agencies. Not very exciting stuff, but it will help you to understand why Verizon is being a hardass about your phone.
You see, once upon a time, way back in the early ’00s, cellphones were not very good at locating people who were unable to tell the 911 operator where they were.
This is quite obviously a huge problem because the entire point of 911 is that the operator can locate you if you are in awful trouble and can’t speak. In a perfect world, you could always just call the hospital and order an ambulance for yourself. Then you could file your toenails and watch the Price is Right and wait for them to show up. But life isn’t perfect, and sometimes you need 911 to be able to locate you without your help.
The FCC decided to do something about this problem. They gave the cellphone operators a choice. Either they could come up with a network based solution or a handset based solution.
Your provider, Verizon, chose a handset based solution. They were given a deadline of December 31, 2005. By that date, Verizon was required to convert 95% of its users to the handset solution, GPS. They missed this deadline. Why? Because users didn’t want to upgrade their phones. The FCC gave them more time.
By May 26, 2006 Verizon had become the first carrier to convert 95% of their users to GPS.
You, George, represent part of the 5% that they failed to convert. In a statement announcing their success, Verizon discussed their conversion technique:
“For the past several years, Verizon Wireless worked diligently to educate customers about the safety benefits of GPS-capable handsets; offered customers competitive and affordable choices among those handsets; provided detailed information on its Web site about the benefits of upgrading to GPS-capable handsets, including a Web-based look-up tool for customers to confirm their handset’s Wireless Phase II E911 capability; and stopped activating or re-activating non-GPS handsets on the Verizon Wireless network.”
Sadly for you, George, the FCC hasn’t forgotten about the 911 issue. In fact, they’re currently threatening to impose fines totaling $2.8 million dollars on companies who, unlike Verizon, failed to meet the 95% requirement.
The FCC is also getting really, really upset about the e911 program’s continued lack of effectiveness at locating people who need it. Network based solutions, for example, don’t work very well outside of cities because they use cellphone tower triangulation to locate users. The fewer cellphone towers, the wider the search area. In addition, it’s difficult to ensure that rural areas are getting the coverage they need because the methods that cellphone companies use to report their 911 successes and failures don’t provide specific enough data.
But this is probably boring you. You’re like, “That it should come to this! I just want to stay on my same phone with my same plan.” Well, you’re probably not going to be able to. The good news is that you’re out of contract and can take advantage of all of our awesome cellphone shopping tips. You may well end up with a better deal than the one you have now, and if you fall off your motorcycle in the middle of nowhere and are bleeding to death—you’ll have a much better chance of being found before you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.
Not the answer you were looking for, we know, but we do hope it helps.
(Photo:nomad73)
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Possible options.
He could call Verizon and ask them to give him a free phone since they want him to upgrade so bad. He could threaten to leave for another provider. They may play ball or they may require he get at least a year contract or two year to get said free phone. Verizon has some really nice free phones right now.
He could buy a newer Verizon capable phone off ebay. It would be fairly cheap and he would not be stuck in a contract that way.
He could also ask on his local freecycle group for a newer Verizon phone. People ask and get newer used phones all the time through our local list. People change providers or get their new contract tied phone every two years and have newer old ones laying around. We have two newer (less than three years old) Verizon phones sitting in a drawer. The only reason I have not given them away is they are our back up in case one of the new ones gets destroyed or lost.
Also to edit my first and second post some to make myself clear rather than get sidetracked off of the point I was originally trying to make. When I said “Not for lack of technology” I was more referring to the ability of network based services (specifically my company’s) to perform a location under normal circumstances. It’s not so much the technology that is failing to give accurate locations, rather the lack of proper equipment – much like the issue with Verizon getting rid of non-GPS phones. I thought my points on the limitations of GPS and network based locations made that clear.
@nullstrike: Not really… If you dial 911, just about every phone I’ve seen will turn the GPS feature back on.
it sounds like verizon chose a method that would intentionally boost sales and contracts. but if you haven’t bought anything else from them, nor signed a contract for a couple of years or more, don’t expect them to do anything for you, as you are not what i would call a “valued customer”. they probably won’t miss out on much should you go elsewhere.
@goodguy812: Actually story is they were poised to contract with my company’s system. As the story goes, we had champagne out and everything, all ready to celebrate our first big contract. All that needed to be done was have the contract signed. Guy shows up at the celebration party but instead of having the contract in hand, he has news that Verizon bailed out. Supposedly one of the sales guys did something fishy and Verizon found out and got pissed, said sales guy was fired. Not long after, Verizon went with the hand held based service because it was cheaper for them to implement – it puts hardware requirements more on the cell phone manufacturers rather than Verizon.
@goodguy812: Is this comment really fair? It’s not like Verizon just decided to to do this overnight…it’s something that they’ve been implementing over quite some time. The guy/girl’s phone is 6 years old, it’s not like they just allowed him/her to buy it and activate.
@Petrarch1603:
Agreed. To the people that say it could save my life, I say two things. One, maybe so, but that is fairly highly unlikely. Two, I’m a big boy and I assume full responsibility for taking care of myself. If I have to choose between having them help me if I’m in serious trouble and knowing where I am whenever they want to or them not helping me when I’m in serious trouble and not knowing where I am whenever they want to, I will choose the latter.
Yup. Totally. The number of scenarios which people are totally isolated from passersby, AND unaware of their location AND unable to find out AND needing rapid emergency service? It approaches Urban Legend rarity.
More inane, nanny-state, gov’t-forcing-you-to-needlessly-spend-money, feelgood legislation.
I don’t have time to read what others have said, so I’ll offer this:
switch carriers, take advantage of the better rates and new features on what will be a free phone if you sign up for a two year deal.
OR
find a company that will offer you a free phone with a one year deal.
Better yet, head over to Amazon and take advantage of their awesome rebates to get a new phone and plan.
Excuse me if this has already been brought up, but doesn’t Verizon have a pre-paid service? From what I understand, even with CDMA providers you can activate the pre-paid phone to use the regular service. The guy could just go out and get the cheapest pre-paid they have then get it activated for his service. Or, he could just do the obvious and buy one of the hundreds, or thousands of used Verizon phones off of eBay.
@TRAI_DEP:
I’m often unaware of my location. As I travel Route 1 in NJ, I don’t necessarily know when I cross from South Brunswick into North Brunswick, into New Brunswick, etc.
One clear, weekday afternoon, I exited the NJ Turnpike at 15W and merged onto the road heading for Harrison on my way to Kearny. A car coming the other way turned sideways, flipped, and rolled. There was a Jersey barrier separating us, thankfully. I didn’t know whether we were in Harrison or Kearny. It turned out it was Kearny, but the regional dispatch center couldn’t tell me where I was. Apparently no E911 and the dispatcher had no familiarity with the area so “I just got off of the Turnpike at 15W and took the first right after the toll plaza and am on the road that leads to Harrison but I think it might be Kearny” meant nothing to him.
And one passerby is can be better than multiple passers-by; when there’s more than one, the assumption that somebody else called it in can lead to no one calling it in.
@nullstrike: Turning off GPS will prevent casual location checking by anyone other than E911. it will not prevent 911 from seeing where you are. Turning off GPS does not, therefore, make the entire system useless to have put in place.
Fortunately for us, GPS does not work like it does in the movies. For your phone to be able to transmit GPS data it would have to be outdoors with a clear view of the sky. a car roof will block it. Also, the phone can only transmit the data during a call. Big Brother can’t poll your idle phone and obtain the data that way. Also, because the location data isn’t stored. The only thing the Feds can subpoena is what cell tower a call was patched through.
Actually, there’s a method of keeping the phone completely off the grid without removing the batteries or powering it off. Simply toss it in an ESD bag that computer parts come in. The bag acts as a faraday cage blocking any EM energy on the outside and containing any EM energy within. Like the battery removal, you won’t receive any incoming calls. However you can’t be tracked either :p
So, you mean to tell us that we can’t use one of those old brick style portable phones anymore?
@Mr3vil:
“Also, the phone can only transmit the data during a call. Big Brother can’t poll your idle phone and obtain the data that way.”
Yes it can. It’s not done at the moment, since we only perform a location on a 911 call, but it is possible. As long as the phone is on, there’s at least some sort of communication going on. And there’s always null SMS messages.
If I have to turn in my StarTAC because of this, I’m going to be pissed.
Couldn’t he just buy a new GPS-capable one on eBay?
they’re supposed to give him a new one for free. then again that means getting into a contract.
I’m really disappointed that, when I fell off my scooter in the middle of nowhere and failed to bleed to death, AAA couldn’t get my location from my cell phone.
I had to ask a motorist (who’d stopped to ask if I needed help) to drive to the nearest mailbox and call me back with the address.
I bet this guy is on a $19.95 rate plan which is probably one of the reasons they aren’t offering him anything special. The carrier I work for sent some people letters offering free phones without a contract after mailing them multiple (ignored) letters to get out of their non 911 phones.
@bonzombiekitty: As I understand it, mean square error for time difference in received radio signals is inversely proportional to bandwidth.
Also, Verizon uses CDMA. At the time systems selection was occurring for E911 solutions for US carriers, CDMA did not have a global system clock, GSM did. Global system timing is critical for TDOA. No way any CDMA carrier at that time could have picked a network solution.
I agree that a combined system may lead to better accuracy. But, you still need line of site to three carrier cell sites for network TDOA (assuming you also have some supplemental logic or AOA–3 only narrows it down to two possible locations where the TD parabolas intersect) or LOS to three GPS sats. Even skipping bad multipath problems, I’m not sure that you get significantly more of the country covered by forcing combined solutions.
So, putting on my best regulator hat:
Social cost = forcing CDMA carriers to do expensive network upgrades + forcing GSM carriers to churn out all handsets and force uptake of GPS equipped handsets (both sets of costs ultimately borne by subscribers)
Social benefit = marginally better location accuracy in some areas.
It may benefit your company. I don’t calculate that it benefits me.
@Thud: I’m not sure about the very low level technicalities of it. But I know for a fact we don’t have a problem performing accurate GSM TDMA locations. I have data files of GSM TDOA and GSM AOA location data sitting on my laptop right now (I make programs that simulate our equipment for the test group).
As for global clocking of CDMA, as far as I know we rely on our own system to do the time of arrival. We have always had a GPS in our equipment that grabs the time – so we don’t rely on any sort of timing off of the network. IIRC, we’ve tested TDOA CDMA long ago (since we were originally supposed to contract with Verizon) and got it to work.
I’m not arguing whether or not it’s worth it to force all the carriers to upgrade to both location service types. Just that it’s possible to give fairly accurate locations in the majority of coverage areas.
Personally, I think that a demand for non-911 locations for other location services is going to crop up and become increasingly more popular. In the end it might just happen anyways.
If they want to track you all they have to do is issue an over-the-air software update to your phone without your knowledge:
[news.com.com]
Also, its not enough to turn off the gps feature in your phone. On some phones, when calling 911 this feature is temporarily activated even if it is set to off – much the same way that blocking your caller id doesn’t really work with 911.
Time to play the EECB card. Tell the CEO how much of a loyal customer you have been and will accept their offer of a new phone at the discount price but without the contract commitment.
Tell them that you are happy with the service and quality of product they have provided so far, but since they are insisting on placing you into a contract, you’re going to shop around and see what their competition has to offer.
Actually people in university I know have tested that theory that dialing 911 will turn it on, and in all their case studies with the help of local law enforcement here, the phones did not turn on the gps system and the 911 operator was unable to determine the location of the handset. However I do agree that the cell provider can push a silent update, but for law enforcement that would require time and a warrant. Wich for 911 purposes could prove to be too late. what they need to do is make it so people cannot turn off the gps function at all.