You dial 911 from your cellular phone. You need help but you don’t know where you are. What happens?

Sheriff Phil Summers said soon improvements will allow the Catoosa 911 Center to triangulate between cell towers to know where a caller is.

“It can be a tremendous benefit for Catoosa because we have an interstate,” he said. “It’s not uncommon with a traffic accident where we have multiple phone calls. Occasionally we have circumstances where someone calls in on a cell phone and they cannot tell us where they are.”

He said the 911 Center will have the ability to communicate quickly with the cellular company to find a person.

“This is mandated by legislation that it must be in place by 2008,” Summers said.

He said all cellular carriers providing service in the area have made the necessary equipment upgrades to meet the legislation.

“We were fortunate to find that our existing equipment will function with very minor improvements,” he said.

Summers said adding this ability to the 911 Center will cost $2,200 for an upgrade in equipment and $2,280 per year.

Since the county is now moving forward in this area of cellular services, it is now eligible to ask for a cell phone 911 fee increase, he said.

He presented to commissioners a proposal to consider raising the amount of the fee collected by the county from cell phone users. Currently, cell phone users pay $1 per month or per quarter depending upon their service provider. He is suggesting that the county raise the fee to $1.50.

He said the increase will bring approximately $100-125,000 from an estimated 20,000 phones that can offset the $224,200 the county currently provides to supplement the 911 budget.

According to the 2007-08 budget, the county projects fees from both landline phones and cell phones to be $800,000 prior to any proposed increase. The county is anticipating spending $336,186 from its general fund towards the 911 budget in addition to the collected fees.

Commissioner Ken Marks asked if cell phone users with a 423 area code will pay any increase that will benefit Catoosa.

Summers said there are several elements from zip code to address that play a role in deciding to what county the fee goes.

“I’m sure a few go through the cracks but the vast majority we get paid for,” he said.

Summers said once approved by the county, then the cell phone providers will send out a letter to its customers notifying them of an increase.

Commissioners approved county staff to set the required public hearings for consideration of the fee increase.

The Catoosa County News will publish those dates after they are set.

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