[catstide]

what in the world?
i made a 911 call and looked at my phone after the call???? what is it?

[KalebsDad78]

It prevents you from receiving any messages after making a 9-1-1 call so if the communications officer needs to call you back, your phone is not tied up downloading data (emails).

[catstide]

so..how long does it last?

[KalebsDad78]

About Emergency Callback Mode

When you end an emergency call, the BlackBerry® device enters Emergency Callback Mode. This mode enables the operator to call you back or determine your approximate location. Depending on your service provider, Emergency Callback Mode is active for five minutes or is canceled when you make a non-emergency call.
In Emergency Callback Mode, you cannot send and receive messages or browse web pages.
Your device exits Emergency Callback Mode at any time if you make a non-emergency call.

From the Blackberry website...

[catstide]

kool.....good info

[jblackfish]

That is REALLY ! I didn't know that. Of course that requires that the 911 operator call you back in 5 minutes. Where I live, they probably wouldn't even bother to call back at all.

BTW Cat, are you OK?

[KalebsDad78]

Since I'm the Director of a 9-1-1 center, I know a little about this ...if they don't call back within five minutes, there probably isn't a need. The idea behind it is most cellular calls (when the emergency call back mode was put on the BB) was used in vehicles.

Now, a large percentage of cellular users use their cell phones as their home phones so it seems like this feature could be removed but it's there when needed and you are able to manually override it if you need to make a non-emergency call or call your voicemail to deactive the emergency call back mode and start receiving messages again or access the internet.

[catstide]

Originally Posted by jblackfish BTW Cat, are you OK?

o yeah, just saw a wreck and called it in....thanks for asking.

[jblackfish]

Originally Posted by catstide o yeah, just saw a wreck and called it in....thanks for asking.

NP Man, we can't have anything happenin' to the "cat!" :D

[ganns1980]

Very interesting, learn something new every day!

[Mr_Carter]

Well glad to know you are ok. And yes, you definitely learn something new every day. I've never tried making an emergency call from my BB.. But I should try it some day. I wonder if it would call 911 or our emergency number here in Colombia. ~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~

[KalebsDad78]

If the phone was purchased from a carrier in a differnt country that has 9-9-9 or 1-1-1 for the emergency number, it should be programmed to dial that emergency access point.

[disctosser]

Had this happen this morning. Called 911 to report a driver headed the wrongway down the interstate. (almost hit me head on the idiot) couldn't figure out what my phone was doing. All it said was 'emergency callback m...' on my pearl. Good to know. Wouldn't have thought about emails and txting prohibiting a call.

Does this enable location services as well?

And if so, is the vzw gps unlocked for location services at that time?

~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~

[KalebsDad78]

Verizon cannot lock-out location services as it relates to 9-1-1 calls. It is an FCC mandate for all cell phones to be Phase II compliant as of a few years ago. If the 9-1-1 center you call has Phase II equipment, meaning they have the capability of seeing the coordinates your phone sends to them, they will know your location within a certain distance. If they only have Phase I equipment in their 9-1-1 center, they cannot pinpoint your location and would have to contact the cellular carrier to get that information if it became necessary.

All PSAP's (9-1-1 centers) were supposed to be Phase II compliant by December 2005 but we all know how deadlines set by the FCC come and go and there are still centers out there that are not Phase II compliant, mainly because of the cost to do so but it has gotten MUCH better and only the smaller centers still have this issue.