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Most centers use the very same tools you do to find phone numbers in other states—the Internet or telephone companies. Here are the most important things you can use to help speed up the process: If I were to need to call 911, does it go to a local dispatcher or can they help anywhere in the country? When you call 911, your call is routed through a PSAP that handles calls in your geographical area. 911 call centers save 911 calls, and the amount of time they are required to save them varies from one state to another. Make sure you communicate the location with as many details as possible. Additionally, NENA reports that in 2011, there were 146 million 911 calls from mobile phones.Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life.National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Emergency Medical Services. Once they have the information they need the call-taker can transfer you to the correct center. If you know what to expect, you're more likely to get the help you need when you need it. To contact the local 911 center responsible for answering calls from a particular location, go here and click on the state in which the 911 call was placed. Before You Call 911 on a Cell Phone, Here's What You Need to Know! If you are calling for yourself or for someone you are with, the person who answers your call for help is likely sitting in the same room as the person (or If you're in California and you're chatting with your aunt in Colorado when she suddenly complains of That being said, there's no way for any center in the United States, or in the world, to have contact information for every other center. Fact checked by Elaine Hinzey, RD Understanding How 911 Works. Rod Brouhard is an emergency medical technician paramedic (EMT-P), journalist, educator, and advocate for emergency medical service providers and patients.Elaine Hinzey is a fact checker, writer, researcher, and registered dietitian.
Different emergency services use different dispatch centers. Sure, … While the mobile phone can provide the location of the nearest cell tower, those coordinates may not be specific enough for a 911 dispatcher to use for directing a responder. That's not enough information for the dispatcher to find you. Rod Brouhard is an emergency medical technician paramedic (EMT-P), journalist, educator, and advocate for emergency medical service providers and patients. Unfortunately, it's probably not going to be quick, or at least not feel like it's happening very quickly. What they have that you don't is a working relationship with telephone companies, and that usually results in better cooperation. It's not unheard of for a cell phone to skip over several cell towers to one in a completely different state. Many municipal PSAPs—especially those in tourist areas—have standard operating procedures for handling calls just like this. The Federal Communications Commission intends to require all wireless carriers Any phone that turns on and can receive a signal is capable of making a 911 call. When you make a 911 call on a cell phone, you are sending signals through the air. The difference has to do with how the calls are routed and how they're tracked. I still have my old cell phone from that state.
The tower that picks up your phone's signal may be near or not.
That means if you're disconnected from the dispatch center, you must call 911 back. They're staring at a computer screen that has all the relevant questions. Listen carefully and answer as concisely as possible. Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. These centers are not guaranteed to find a center for you in another part of the country, but that doesn't mean they won't try. That means you can use defunct, disconnected or back-up phones to place an emergency call, as long as you’re in a location covered by cell towers. Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our
Chances are, if you call 911, it will be from a cellphone -- but the system was built for landlines, and is still catching up to the smartphone era. Luckily, his mom was able to intervene before he bled out. Important: if the phone you're using isn't activated, there isn't a phone number assigned to it. There's a difference between calling 911 on a mobile phone and calling from a landline. When you call 911 for someone who is not physically with you, the same "local" PSAP is going to answer the phone.
Learn how calling 911 on a cell phone could mean that officials who answer might not know where to find you. Before they can dispatch help, there are two pieces of information the call-taker needs to know A call-taker in a far-away city or county may answer. Professional call-takers are trained to get information from you.