The mobile phones of today with their smart features and high-end specifics can do most of the things a computer can. Yet, when we need them for their most important and basic purpose, making phone calls, especially in emergencies, the overhyped modern technology doesn’t always serve the purpose, particularly for a 911 caller.

When people facing a situation call 911, the first question they are asked is, “Where is your emergency?” Whatever the problem, this stands out as the most important question during  an emergency because the 911 folks need to know where to reach you in order to extend their help. However, cellphones don’t provide a strong vote in such times because their location can’t be tracked so precisely. Landline phones, on the other hand, offer a much more secure and stable answer to the “where” question as the device is linked to a specific address. Unfortunately, that has become a much harder question for first responders answering emergencies reported on cellphones the past 20 years primarily because the GPS on cellphones doesn’t work as well indoors as it does outside.

In this regards, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed new regulations for wireless carriers to help address the problem but, so far, wireless providers are resisting the changes. A 911 call operator shared his experience when an 8-year-old called him on a cellphone because his parents had a medical emergency. The boy couldn’t read very well, and his parents didn’t speak English. So the call taker asked him to walk outside and read out the number of the boy’s house. It took about 10 minutes. Although the number was given out by the child somehow, situations may be worse where providing the address verbally is not possible. Such scenarios could turn disastrous. In this case too, if the call had come in on a landline, identifying the house would have been instantaneous — the location would have just popped up on the 911 operator’s computer screen.

With nearly half the children in the U.S. are living in wireless-only households, situations like this are common. According to the National Emergency Number Association, around 210 million 911 calls come from cellphones every year. About half of the people calling on a cellphone from indoors don’t know where they are specifically. The statistics should wake people up to consider retaining landlines in their households. We must welcome the new technology but also recognize the benefits we might forgo when letting go of the past.