Deactivated Cell Phones = Problem?

So you've finally upgraded to a new cell phone and your old phone has found its place in the sock drawer. The children find it and start playing around "calling" everyone they wish to talk to. "What can it hurt?", you think to yourself. It's an old phone, an old SIM card, or even no SIM card. There's something your wireless provider didn't tell you.

Although you may have deactivated your service and removed the SIM from your phone, it still makes calls! Don't get too excited. It only dials emergency numbers. If your old phone's battery is charged you can still dial 9-1-1 and connect with a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). The location of the tower that receives your signal will usually determine the closest PSAP to you.

This is great news for anyone who needs help but doesn't have an active cellular plan. However, it has become a problem for many PSAP's. As the PSAP for Washita County, our police department receives many emergency calls on our E9-1-1 system. A great number of these calls are small children playing with the phone. I'm pretty sure they're quite amazed that mommy and daddy let them have a phone that dials real people. The lack of a cellular service plan provides a unique challenge for our PSAP: we can't return the call. Due to the lack of registered service no names are delivered to our station. Many of these calls are also "Wireless Phase One" calls. We don't receive an exact location. In fact, the only location given with the call is the cell tower that received the signal. Callers may be many miles away from the tower. Triangulation is possible to provide a more concise location, but it can cost cell companies over $15,000 to conduct the trace. This is why we only request it in the event of an actual emergency.

We are requesting you remove the battery from the phone prior to letting your child play with it. This will prevent the phone from becoming operational and sending an emergency signal to a cell tower. The result would be a great reduction in the number of false calls.

Also, remind your children that 9-1-1 should only be used in emergency situations.

Stay safe, Cordell!