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Old 10-26-2019, 02:09 PM   #838
WhiteTiger
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I got a PM asking about what we call "911 phones", and if they are good to keep around. I figured that my reply may be of interest to more people, as well. The question in general was along the lines of "I have an old cell phone that I keep charged up for emergencies. Can it call 911? A co-worker suggested I just test it and see what happened."

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In Canada, as long as a cell phone has power, it can call 911. It doesn't need to have a SIM card or a payment plan. As long as it can be turned on, it can call 911.

There are a couple problems, though. They are the most annoying phones to deal with, as an emergency operator. When we get phone calls from them, they come in with a 911 prefix, and seven random numbers

So if your old phone number was, say 587-428-3657, we'd see that phone as 911-304-6684, for example (I have no clue why this is).

Additionally, there is no way to track the phone, nor is there any way for us to call it back and in 7 years, I have never been successful in tracking down the 'old' phone number. Pings from these "911 phones" as we call them usually come back with radius over 1000 meters.

So, while you can keep a charged 'old' phone around, it's not a very good thing to do, as unless the person using the phone can talk and tell 911 where they are, there's almost nothing we can do about it other than acknowledge that a 911 phone called us at some time, from some where.

These sorts of phones are usually given to small children, as folks figure that with no plan, minutes or SIM card that the phone can't do anything. Many a 911 operator has listened to small children playing with a phone, with no way for us to ensure that there isn't an emergency going on.

If you had tested it, we'd not likely be 'ticked', but it does tie up services for someone else. I never mind answering 911 related questions, as the more knowledge out there about this, the better.

Last edited by WhiteTiger; 10-26-2019 at 10:27 PM.
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