The city yesterday took a major step in being able to pinpoint the location of 911 calls made from wireless telephones, with an enhanced service for Mobi PCS subscribers.

In coming weeks, it plans to complete testing of the system for T-Mobile and Sprint/Nextel subscribers. By the end of March, the city wants the emergency service to be available to customers of all wireless providers.

Unlike telephone users with wired connections, cellular callers do not have their locations automatically displayed on the screens of 911 dispatchers. That shortcoming prompted the city and the mobile phone providers to work together on a plan that included the installation of new technology to allow cellular calls to be traced.

Public safety operators even will be able to locate Mainland tourists who are making 911 calls to O'ahu dispatch centers that include the police department, fire department, Honolulu Emergency Services Department, Hickam Air Force Base and Navy Regional Dispatch Center at Pearl Harbor.

"Try to get a tourist to say Kalaniana'ole when they're panicking out over something," said Gordon Bruce, director of the city Department of Information Technology. "Within two seconds we'll be able to pinpoint where you are."

The program was mandated nationally by Congress in 1999 and is funded locally by a 66-cents-a-month fee levied on about 860,000 mobile-phone users in the state. More than $14 million has been raised locally through the fee.

Only Maui so far had its mobile 911 system up and running. Bruce said similar systems are in the works for Kaua'i, the Big Island and Moloka'i.

The city has spent about $1 million in the past six months on hardware and software for the program, integrating wireless phone systems with Hawaiian Telcom's system so the origin of emergency calls can be obtained automatically. Bruce said the system also allows operators to track calls coming from moving cars.

Bruce said another $4 million will be spent this year on the improvements. Other plans call for the installation of communications towers in remote areas where no wireless coverage is available now. This will allow dispatchers to receive and identify the locations of hikers and others in distress. About $250,000 will be spent annually to maintain the system.

He said another advantage of the program is that it ties together all of the public safety answering centers on the same network and same mapping system.

"People will get updated at the same time. Administratively it's a money and a time saver," Bruce said.

The state has collected the fees for the enhanced service for the past 2 1/2 years. Delays in implementing the service statewide were partly a result of lengthy municipal budgeting and approval processes and a lack of technical expertise.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com and Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.