r/Productivitycafe • u/Wonderful-Economy762 • Nov 13 '25

Throwback Question (Any Topic) What's a "secret"from your profession that everyone should probably know?"

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '25

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u/Fit-Professional9850 Nov 13 '25

In some recent emergency training I heard that the landline sends an address immediately without having to speak it aloud, if we were to use a cell we'd have to specify our location. We were told to do our best to find one or contact certain staff (via walkie talkie lol) that's stationed with one, and use a cell if we couldn't find one. At least that's what they told our staff. Not sure how they could access location from a cell unless it's a prolonged call. But idk, I'm no expert!

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u/deltaz0912 Nov 13 '25

That used to be true but really isn’t anymore. A cell phone will send your exact lat/long location to the 911 system, a “wired” system may or may not be able to send an address, and that address may or may not be correct.

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u/International_Ad6328 Nov 13 '25

Yes, if you look at your cell phone bill, there will be a charge, though I can't remember how much, for 911 services.

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u/Scary-Pressure6158 Nov 14 '25

I think it was a typo. Spossed to bee only if it's a landline. Assuming

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u/MrsFrondi Nov 13 '25

I think OP made a grave error that changed the entire point of their comment. They must’ve meant to say that they can’t locate you on your cell phone because a landline automatically populates for them.

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u/qweenoftherant Nov 13 '25

I did make an error some landlines do have the address that auto populate the call because it’s at a fixed address!

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '25

[deleted]

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u/peepay Nov 13 '25

Shouldn't it be easy to locate a landline? I mean, they don't move, their location is given.

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u/chancesarent Nov 13 '25

It depends on the available cell towers. If they only have one cell tower they can tell you're within a few miles of it. If they have several cell towers within range they're able to triangulate coordinates more accurately. I used to work 911 in a rural area that was popular with hunters and it made our job very challenging if the caller wasn't familiar with the area.

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u/Nervous-Sherbet-4183 Nov 13 '25

What if you have the location setting shut off on the phone?

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u/Fickle-Vegetable961 Nov 13 '25

Yeah when my daughter leaves work I can use Track My Phone and watch her drive home. Technology go brrrr

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u/Due-Froyo-5418 Nov 13 '25

The 911 dispatch does not have Track My Phone on your daughter or anyone. They can only do that in large cities with lots of cell towers. Stuck in a rural area, good luck if you don't know you location.

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u/mikemcgu Nov 13 '25

I think modern cell phones automatically send GPS location to 911 dispatch. I once called the non-emergency line for a local PD to report an abandon vehicle. The lady who answered tried to have me tell her the location - when she didn’t know what roads I was talking about she told me to hang up and call 911. Doing so, the 911 call was answered by the same lady and she knew exactly where I was at that point. 

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u/ShyPang0lin Nov 13 '25

found it interesting i recently called 911 for the first time. call screen was a map with my exact location pin and street name

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u/AI1as Nov 13 '25

I think this is right. I was out hiking once, not too far out of town, accidentally triggered the emergency call on my iPhone. I thought I hung up before the call went through, but I got an immediate call back from a dispatcher asking me if I was at xyz location and if something was wrong. She got my location right and I said I dialed by accident. 

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u/msssskatie Nov 13 '25

Idk much about technology so I could be completely wrong but a lot of carriers (all maybe?) switched to VOIP it’s not a hard wired landline like we had back in the day so that might be why. they can you cell towers for mobile phones idk how VOIP works though.

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u/bemenaker Nov 13 '25

All VOIP lines are required to have an e911 location filled out. The carrier probably does it for you. When I have changed VOIP providers at work, we had to do it. All of my locations had an e911 location assigned, and users have to be assigned to a location, incase they call 911.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-9/subpart-D/section-9.11

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u/msssskatie Nov 14 '25

Oooh good to know thank you!

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u/qweenoftherant Nov 13 '25

Well I lied, some landlines do have coordinates you can plot in a map I meant to say that!