When we first saw this, our immediate reaction was, "trust us, Jitterbug, we appreciate your extra-mile attitude here, but it's not your fault that 911 doesn't work without a signal." Turns out that's not quite the issue, though -- in reality, Jitterbug is recalling phones sold after March 1 of last year because they maybe be unable to place calls to 911 in areas where the company doesn't have MVNO or roaming agreements in place. In other words, the phone is showing "no service," but you've still got a signal -- and whenever a phone's got a signal, it should be able to dial the cops. Jitterbug is offering affected customers the option either of taking their handset into a local Samsung service center or mailing it in, at which point a software update will be applied. Too bad these things don't do firmware updates over the air, isn't it?

[Via Phone Scoop]

While things like copy and paste, multimedia messaging and video calling are nice extras to have, there's really only one thing that's most important when it comes to a reliable cellphone: the 911 functionality. Evidently, around 30,000 LG 830 Spyder handsets aren't having the easiest time dialing for help, with a product recall noting that a huge swath of 'em have "difficulty sustaining a connection or have poor voice quality on calls to emergency 911." It should be noted, however, that LG's actually being really, really proactive here, as it has only received a single report (and no injuries) to date. The Spyder phones affected have software versions T83LGV03 and T83LGV04, and you can hit the read link if you suspect yours is amongst that 30,000.

[Via textually]

Asshats, jerkfaces, and garden-variety idiots have finally stirred the sleeping giant -- and though the FCC doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation of coming down hard on offenders, we can only hope something good happens here. All cellphones, tied to active accounts or otherwise, are required by law to be able to place calls to emergency services; by and large, that's a sound policy and something that's probably saved dozens of lives over the years. Sadly, though, folks have seen fit to abuse that capability, in some cases utterly overwhelming call centers and taking away service from others who genuinely need it. A number of states have banded together and formally asked the FCC to do something about it, and this is where it gets a little messy. Does the commish repeal the clause requiring access to 911? Sounds like the wrong move, but without any sort of account linkage, prank calls from inactive handsets are difficult at best to stop, simply because they can't be traced. There doesn't seem to be any guidance yet from the feds on exactly what action they may take -- and with an issue this tricky, we don't really expect action any time soon.

We've seen some pretty well equipped helmets in our day, but UMass Amherst student Brycen Spencer seems a touch more interested in safety advancements than integrated speakers. His concoction, dubbed the Wireless Impact Guardian (WIG), looks like your average helmet at first glance, but a quick look inside reveals electronics designed to sense an impact, judge if you're conscious and dial for help if necessary. Essentially, an alarm is triggered upon impact, and if you're not cohesive enough to disable it after 60 seconds, it automatically rings up 911 and beams out your location via GPS so that medical personnel can get moving. Currently, the device is quite a ways from going commercial, but considering that Mr. Spencer has already invested in a provisional patent, we'd say it's well on its way.

[Via textually]

AT&T's Smart Limits parental control package has been temporarily taken offline after the carrier discovered a little catch-22 with the service: if a user of a Smart Limits-controlled phone dials 911 and gets disconnected, the emergency operator is blocked from calling back. Obviously, this is a case of Smart Limits being just a little too smart (or too dumb, depending on how you look at it) for the user's own good -- we don't think parents are too concerned about their young 'uns spending hours racking up anytime minutes on the line with a chatty 911 operator -- and AT&T clearly did the right thing by pulling the service until it gets sorted out. Shouldn't take too long, we imagine.

[Via mocoNews]

The FCC's goal of 95 percent network compliance for enhanced 911 (E911) capability came and went long ago -- December 31, 2005, to be specific -- but like all good bureaucracies, it's just now taking the time to propose a few fines for the carriers that failed to comply. At the deadline, Alltel was apparently at 84 percent, US Cellular rocked out at 89 percent, Sprint came in at 81 percent, and future partner in marriage Nextel was at 74 percent, leaving significant swaths of their respective networks without the ability to locate subscribers in the event of an emergency. For their failures, Sprint Nextel's looking at about a $1.3 million slap on the wrist, Alltel can expect $1 million, and US Cellular about $500,000. Not enough to drive any of the three to the verge of bankruptcy -- and really, not enough for any of the three to even notice when the cash gets pulled out of the coffers. Way to be, FCC.

[Via Phone Scoop]