Dialing 911 sets off a loud alarm on newer Verizon phones, potentially putting customers in danger. Imagine dashing under your bed at the sound of an intruder breaking through the front door, only to wonder if you should call 911 from your cellphone because it would reveal your location. A Texas woman was forced to make a similar decision when she discovered that the security chain guarding her vacant property was missing.
She grabbed her new Casio G’zOne phone from Verizon Wireless, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911.Fearing vandals were still on the property, she hung up and hid, then put her hand over the earpiece and dialed again to muffle the sounds.
“I was afraid the criminals were down the driveway and they would hear and they would know somebody was doing something and they would come out to stop me,” she said.
Verizon believes that the alarm is required by federal law.
“The tone our customer experienced is our interpretation of Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act calling for a provider of telecommunications service to offer service that is accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities.”
That would be nice, except an FCC spokesman called bullshit:
“The Commission has not implemented any rules pursuant to Section 255 that would require the use of any tones concerning 911 calls.”
Verizon should rollback their misguided extension of “Can You Hear Me Now?” to criminals. Dialing 911 should never put you in danger.
Verizon customer calls phone alarm ‘dangerous’ [KVUE News]
(Photo: mellomango)
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@stevebmd: Steve, the only reason I dialed 911 was because I didn’t know where I was. I had an animal hit my vehicle and it could have been suffering. I would love to have had the local PD number to call, but I didn’t know which town I was in. ALL my cellphones have always had the local PD’s non-emergency dispatch numbers programmed in, and I call them if there is something they need to address like a stuck railroad crossing or some kids getting rowdy at the high school across the street.
I lived in Pittsburgh and kept getting harassed over the phone by an MCI telemarketer. When I called the precinct to ask for an officer to take a harassment report, they told me to call 911. I did and got the officer a few minutes later. A year or so after that I got into a car accident (in front of a Pittsburgh Police station), and when I called 911, I was told officers don’t go to traffic accidents unless a car is un-drivable, someone is injured, or I suspected a drunk driver.
I also used to call Pittsburgh 911 (I was an EMT and CMU and we had to call 911 to get a city ambulance on the scene) and my phone went into “emergency mode” for a while, but didn’t make any kind of alarm other than a few soft (and downright pleasant) tones when I hit “send”. Haven’t tried it on my LG VX-8700 yet.
My sister called 911 a couple weeks ago from her Verizon cell phone to report a downed tree in the road, and her phone made that tone, and when I heard it, I thought a this very situation. I’m curious if the phone makes the tone when it’s on silent or vibrate. Regardless, this should not happen.
@jsemtp: If you are in the US, the government DOES mandate that Verizon be able to locate your cell phone when you dial 911. In my experience, however, Verizon doesn’t do a very good job at it. But then again, I am a little bit biased.
@stevebmd:
Let me think of the things I’ve called 911 for:
1) traffic accidents, especially the ones where some asshole was driving 65mph in a 45mph zone and slams full speed into cars stopped at a traffic light
2) Heart attack
3) Child w/no prior hx of seizures having a seizure
4) Drunk driver almost creaming 2 other cars
5) More drunk drivers
6) Burglary in process
Maybe you should get out more. Quite a few life-endangering things happen.
With Verizon’s propensity to burn down houses on installations, it’s amazing they didn’t program the phone to catch on fire and become a flare when dialing 9-1-1
@inelegy: Awesome.
It is pretty stupid for the phone to make any noise after you dial 911. But is it also possible that the tone the writer heard wasn’t as loud as she thought but more like the lower tones other commenters have reported?
@stevebmd: I got hit by a car….on my motorcycle! I consider that an emergency.
@stevebmd: The first time I called 911 it was because i was passing a car on the highway with 10′ flames coming from under the hood. The second time, I had a guy wipe out on his motorcycle right in front of me. I’m *pretty sure* that with all the blood and stuff, it was life threatening. But maybe there’s an authoritative book which specifically states what is lifethreatening and what isn’t? Honestly, I’d rather phone and be told that someone’s already on their way (because someone else has also called), than not call at all.
Can we have a Dumbest Idea Ever award? This doesn’t elevate them to the Worst Company but this could possibly be the dumbest single idea a company’s had all year.
@vanilla-fro: I guess but why wouldn’t the Verizon rep have said so?
@stevebmd: With the way people drive I’m surprised I haven’t ever had to call 911.
my LG8600 plays alil jingle when you dial 911. not extremely loud.
i think it even plays it when the phone is on silent (my husband has the same phone and i had him dial 911 when we watched a car smash into the concrete divider on the freeway).
@cashmerewhore: It plays a jingle?
If someone is in an emergency situation, do they really want to hear a catchy tune to let them know they sent a 911 call?
Who designs these things anyway? Douglas Adams must be smirking in his grave.
@vanilla-fro: If you click on the link to the article, you can watch the story video where they play the siren/klaxon noise. It’s loud. Especially since the Gz-one has a fairly large external speaker.
@Buran: Everybody else has already pointed out your mistake, but LOLLLLLLL.
While I think this is a dumb idea, I suspect the original logic might have been to let people know that the telephone in their purse or pocket has dialed 911 accidentally. I remember hearing that those calls are part of the reason for the fifteen minute waits.
@pengie: Oh really? Seems like the half-assed stupid remark does plenty of saying what little thought went through the comment I replied to.
I bet you feel all mighty and powerful for acting like a jerk too huh?
@rich815:
15 minutes is definitely not unheard of in the Bay Area. All cell 911 calls in the bay go to Vallejo CHP dispatch, and that’s a long painful queue to get through. If you’re within SF city limits and your 911 call is placed on a tower firmly in the city (not near a highway), your call gets directed to SFPD. Nifty.
I once called for a CHP officer after I got into an accident, and it took longer to get through to dispatch than the time it took for the officer to get there. That’s why I always have every local/municipal emergency and non-emergency phone number programed into the phone if there’s an emergency that happens to be in a local area.
Having those numbers was a definite a lifesaver when a bunch of vandals/thieves were breaking into homes in my neighborhood at 3am one night and speeding through the streets between 60-100mph in a normal 25-40mph zone. I just happened to be coming back from a night out and pulled in as it was happening. I followed them and called 911 on my cell, only to be placed on hold for the “next available operator.”
Instead, I hung up and called our county sheriff’s dispatch center directly. Instant connection with a live person and no less than 4 sheriff cars showed up within minutes.
Back to the topic at hand. I think the loud tones emitted after dialing 911 is another stupid misstep for Verizon. Yes, they were probably airing on the side of caution. But previous posters and the linked story was correct…its a public safety hazard if you’re trying to silently call 911. When was the last time you were able to “get to a safe place” AND THEN dial 911. C’mon, if we need the po-po, we need them now!
You know of all the things to bitch about Verizon this is not one of them.
I can hardly believe they made this up just for the fun of it. They got a paragraph of laws and rules from congress. Paragraph is unclear on the actual implementation (unheard of, right?). Verizon goes ahead and interprets it the best they can; turns out the paragraph written by Congress and Verizon’s interpretation both suck.
Imagine the consequences if Verizon would just ignore whatever Congress sends their way.
Just saying…
I hope Verizon allows this to be disabled. I’m sure that the person who was trying to shoot someone outside of my old apartment building would have just loved to know which apartments were dialing the cops (Open window on a summer night) so that the residents would be silenced so there were no witnesses.
She grabbed her new Casio G’zOne phone from Verizon Wireless, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911.
The “G’zOne” is a horrible name for a phone. Just sayin’…
@ColdNorth:
Good karma/luck jingle? Heck, I dunno. I’m 99% positive his phone did the same thing mine did, and it was on vibrate. There are two settings beyond vibrate (alarm only and silent), perhaps it won’t chime on those. Next time I need to call 911 I’ll check it….
The Moto Q does this as well. Not good at all.
@Buran: Dude, chill. You made a mistake. I had a chortle at it. Big whoop.
Back on topic, hopefully Verizon is able to offer some new firmware or something of the sort that will allow this feature to be disabled. I can see how it may be useful (as a previous commenter pointed out, possibly allowing rescuers to locate the person in trouble), but most people will probably want to disable it. Here’s hoping they respond appropriately–I was considering switching to them when my AT&T contract expires in two months.
@pengie: I’m not a dude, and I laugh at your “I gotta be on my high horse” BS. Thanks for making another assumption and getting THAT wrong.
Okay, I don’t think anyone has asked this, so I will…does it make the ton if the volume is off? I keep my phone on vibrate when I’m at work, and most of the time, I forget to turn the volume back on when I get home. I’m not going to call 911 for the sake of testing out my thought, but I’m wondering if anyone knows the answer.
ton = tone
Apologies to the spelling gods.
T-Mobile charged me $0.75 for dailing 911. I guess that’s better than a loudass siren going off.
@Buran: Look, I realize it’s too late now, because you’ve already embarassed yourself. But what Pengie said that you got so huffy about is called “sarcasm” and he was using it to mock stevebmd. You are making yourself look dumb. Please. Stop.
@Her Grace: I normally despise “++” comments. But…
++
I’m glad that someone brought this topic up. I have a Motorola Q with Verizon, and a few weeks ago I had to call 911. The condo building I live in has been broken into several times in the last few months, including my own unit, by people who case the joint during the day and wait for people to leave for work. I called 911 on one such loiterer, while I was standing outside and my phone made that same loud tone, right in my ear, which scared the crap out of me. I remember thinking it was a good thing I wasn’t not in my house trying to call 911 and hide from a burglar!
Wow, I have that exact phone model. Unfortunately, I recently had to call 911 using this phone, because I had witnessed a biker collide with a car (all were OK). When I called, the custom 911 screen display and loud ‘alarm’ were a bit startling, but I didn’t pay much attention to it as I was focused on the situation. I hadn’t even considered the possible negative consequence of having a phone blare at you when trying to report an emergency, where stealth would be desired. There’s no apparent way to turn this off in the user manual or by digging in the menus, sigh…
@Tzepish: Calls to 9-1-1 are free. However, you are probably seeing the monthly Wireless 9-1-1 Surcharge or Fee which is charged on every wireless/landline telephone.