The suggestion from Jim Miclon, head of the dispatch center in Oxford County, to use land-line telephones instead of cellular phones to call 911 indicates a major problem for Maine. Prevailing, popular technology is making it more difficult to report, and respond to, emergencies.

And we all thought cell phones made our lives easier.

“We have wasted much time in an emergency situation just trying to figure out what town and what service to send when cell phones are used,” Miclon said recently. He added, “I have stood in the communications center dispatch room watching and listening to my staff struggling to get caller and location information from cell phone callers.”

(This does seemingly contradict what Miclon told us in August, when he said 85 percent of calls into the Oxford County dispatch from cell phones were handled correctly.)

Regardless, when seconds count, confusion or misunderstanding of critical information is intolerable. Miclon deserves credit for saying what many think: Emergency responders, like dispatchers, cannot direct and coordinate responses effectively with cell phone information.

This seems a failure of technology and accountability. Wireless communication providers are supposedly certified as compliant with Federal Communications Commission regulations for triangulating cell phone signals in Maine, and have been since 2005.

Miclon’s sentiments — and the bizarre circumstances surrounding the response to a fire on the Dixfield-Carthage border last summer — indicate this compliance is questionable. What good is some arbitrary regulatory compliance if dispatchers cannot find people or places in an emergency?

Hastening this problem is the steady conversion of communications from wired to wireless. Cell phones are ubiquitous and convenient. More than half of 911 calls in Maine now come from cell phones, a figure that has nearly doubled since the year 2000, according to state data.

So, in reporting an emergency, people have become more likely to reach into their pockets for their cell phones, than to spring toward the nearest land-line telephone to call. And among the scores of tourists who visit Maine annually, this percentage is perhaps much higher.

This is a grave concern, as it means those who may know the least about their location or terrain are reporting emergencies through a method that cannot accurately locate them.

When Maine’s E-911 system was initiated, it was built around the presence — and dominance — of land-line telephones. This foundation is rapidly becoming outdated, which indicates the need for communications officials and emergency responders to start re-thinking 911.

Miclon’s concerns are a call for action. Are more towers the answer? Better technology? What role do wireless firms play, given their curious state of “compliance” with FCC regulations? At some point, confusion over a location will turn tragic. Let’s not wait for that happen.

Let’s be heard. Now.

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