129
Making an Emergency Call
The satellites used by the GPS feature of your
phone are controlled by the U.S. government and
are subject to change s imp leme nt ed in acc or dan ce
with the Department of Def en se GPS user policy
and the Federal Radionavigation Plan. These
changes may affect the performance of the GPS
feature of your phone.
Making an Emergency Call
Dial 911 to be connected t o an emergency
response center. If you are on an active call, you
must end it before calling 911.
When you make an emergen c y 911 call, the GPS
feature of your phone be gins to se ek i nfo r mati on to
calculate your approximate location. It will take
the GPS feature of your pho ne some time to
determine your approximate location. Even
where your phone has good ac cess to sufficient
GPS satellite signals and network assist data, it
may take 30 seconds or more to determine the
approximate location. This time w ill in crease where
there is reduce d access to satelli te signals. When
your approximate l ocation is determined, it is made
available to the appropriate emergency response
center.
In some cases, your local 911 emergency
response center may not be equipped to
receive GPS loca tion information. Fo r this
reason, and because the GPS location information
reported is only appro x imate or may not be
available in your loca tion (see “IMPORTANT:
Things to Keep in Mind” on page 127), always
report your location to the 911 operator you
speak to when making an emergency call, if able,
just as you would when u si ng a ph on e wit h ou t G PS
capabilities.
Note:I f you are concerned about whether you r
local 911 emergency re sponse center is
equipped to receiv e GPS location
information, contact your local authorit ies.
In general, if your phone has access to signals
from more GPS satellite s, your location will be
determined faster and more ac curately than if your
phone has access to signals from fewer GPS
satellites.
If your phone does not have adequate access to
GPS satellites signals, the location of the near est
cell tower in contact with yo ur ph on e is
automatically made available to the emergency
response center, if t he center has the ca pability to
receive such information.