WASHINGTON-Marcia Spielholz, the California woman whose emergency 911 cellular phone call went unanswered in 1994 during an attempted auto theft in which she was shot in the face, plans to amend her class-action lawsuit against Los Angeles Telephone Co. next week by adding new plaintiffs-including a new wireless consumer advocacy group launched by Jim Conran.
Spielholz, who filed the lawsuit against L.A. Cellular last February for false and deceptive advertising of its cellular coverage area because the carrier allegedly failed to disclose significant gaps in coverage, has replaced her previous law team with the Los Angeles firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein L.L.P.
“There are so many consumers with issues that someone has to stand up and represent them. It’s clear from the industry’s actions and inaction that it is not prepared to truthfully and honestly represent consumer issues,” said Conran, head of the new Global Wireless Consumers Alliance.
“We assume this is another iteration of the Ad Hoc Alliance for Access to 911 advocating for strongest signal and patent, which has been opposed by all the public-safety organizations,” said Tim Ayers, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
The Spielholz case, which could open the floodgates to copy-cat lawsuits around the country, and other like incidents involving wireless 911 problems, stand as a dramatic backdrop to growing controversies over lackluster wireless E911 implementation and unconnected wireless 911 calls that continue to contribute to deaths and injuries.
Just last week, in the heart of Silicon Valley, emergency dispatchers found the seriously injured 42-year-old Zoya Moghaddas and her vegetation-covered vehicle-which had veered out of control off Interstate 280 in Cupertino, Calif.,-only after she set off the car alarm.
While Moghaddas’s 911 mobile phone call got through to a public safety answering point, the PSAP lacked her phone number and the cell from which she called because Phase I E911 is not implemented in that area.
The Federal Communications Commission made Phase I E911 effective April 1, subject to funding and technical upgrades for PSAPs.
Complicating the wireless E911 rollout further are disputes between carriers and local zoning boards over antenna siting and the fact that wireless emergency numbers vary throughout the country.
CTIA and health-care professionals unsuccessfully pushed for a bill, sponsored by House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), that would make 911 service uniform nationwide and subsidize PSAP improvements with fees paid by carriers to federal agencies to construct towers on their property.
That legislation, despite opposition from state and local officials, is expected to be a high priority for both lawmakers next year.
Less than 1.5 percent of PSAPs meet Phase I E911 requirements, according to the National Emergency Numbering Association. Phase II would enable PSAPs to locate callers within a radius of 400 feet.
In Andover, Mass., Amy Heislfin, a registered nurse, writes in the December Consumer Reports that last spring she and her boyfriend came upon an unresponsive man in an unfamiliar town. Heislfin said she began cardiac pulmonary resuscitation while her boyfriend ran to the car to phone 911.
“The operator refused to put the call through, saying we’d have to look up the number for local authorities. The man we were trying to help died. Afterward, I called my cellular service provider to discuss what happened. I got the company’s condolences for the victim and an emergency number to use.”
Yet, while wireless E911 problems persist, 83,000 wireless emergency calls are made daily without charge to the 60 million mobile phone subscribers.
Indeed, one success story occurred last week in West Salt Lake, Utah, when a man with a cell phone called 911 during an attempted armed robbery at a convenience store and the assailants were promptly captured after fleeing the scene of the crime.
Despite the public-safety benefit of wireless 911 access, though, some critics say consumers have been given a false sense of security because they believe the colorful maps depicting the service coverage area-not realizing there are gaps in service.
Spielholz’s attorneys claim L.A. Cellular advertised seamless coverage throughout 30,000 square miles in Southern California, with service provided between the Nevada and Arizona borders to Catalina Island.
Spielholz said her 911 mobile phone call didn’t get connected because she was in a “dead zone” of the advertised coverage area in the car-jacking incident. L.A. Cellular is owned by BellSouth Corp. and AT&T Corp.
Meanwhile, consumer advocates, state, local and federal regulators, lawmakers, cellular carriers, E911 service providers and public-safety officials continue to fight each other while consumers suffer the consequences of dead zones.
“I think we’ve made tremendous progress,” said Ari Fitzgerald, wireless adviser to FCC Chairman Bill Kennard.
Fitzgerald said E911 implementation delays tied to funding, technology and liability are local issues, though acknowledging that Kennard still could impact the debate through the bully pulpit. The commission plans to rule on strongest/adequate signal issue in first quarter 1999.
“He (Kennard) hopes to do more on Phase I and Phase II,” said Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald praised Kennard for not backing down in the face of initial opposition from the cellular industry.
