Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 7 Jun 91 21:02:04 GMT From: Brian Kantor Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Emergency Highway Phones Message-ID: Organization: The Avant-Garde of the Now, Ltd. Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 435, Message 1 of 11 Lines: 44 In article decwrl!well.sf.ca.us!well! dag@uunet.uu.net (Darren Alex Griffiths) writes: > A local newscast reported on some interesting highway emergency phones > this morning. It seems that CalTrans is installing phones throughout > the San Francisco bay area on major highways.... Yes, they are solar-powered cellphones. When you open the door on the phone box (a bright yellow weatherproof housing about a cubic foot or so), the phone autodials the local CHP office on a special hunt group, downline signals its identification code (which is mapped by a computer at the CHP office to the location), and then cuts through to voice so you can speak to the dispatcher or phone attendant, who will take care of your problem or patch you through to someone who can. That means that even if you can't make an intelligible noise, they'll ask the beat patrol unit to stop by and check on a phone that's open, so it's enough to stagger from the burning wreck, grab the door open, then faint. The phones also have other sensors to signal low battery [presumably solar supply failure], tampering, tilt, or self-check diagnostic failure. I'm assuming the ones in SF are the same as the ones we've had here in SoCal for a couple of years; they're manufactured here and just over the border in Mexico by a division of Cubic Corp, and checked and installed by their techs. I'm told the phone number dialled, ident, and other such things are burnt into a ROM in the phone controller which also holds the software; apparently it's designed to make it difficult to use the phone for any other purpose were you to liberate one from its roadside loneliness. [This is from a friend of mine who is a senior field install/repair tech for these, and has travelled all over the state supervising installations. I didn't take notes but I think the previous description is fairly accurate.] Brian