POMEROY — Meigs County’s new 911 emergency system is now “Phase 2” compatible for customers on Verizon wireless service.

That means emergency responders can locate callers on that service using a global positioning system signal from the callers’s wireless telephones. Other wireless providers are expected to follow suit in the coming weeks.

It is this service that distinguishes the county’s service as E-911, or enhanced 911. The system installed at the 911 building on Mulberry Heights arrived E-911 compatible, but Verizon, which also developed the telephone directory and address database for the county service, is the first wireless provider to connect to it.

Emergency Services/911 Director Doug Lavender said Verizon became the first local cell service provider to become compatible with the new system. AT&T, T-Mobile and other providers are also expected to do so.

Customers using cable-access telephone service will also soon have access to a similar service. Lavender said Suddenlink cable, which offers telephone service, will also be able to provide an address, but only a home address for the service, and only if the customer sets up the service to provide it.

Phase 2 service is financed through a cellular telephone surcharge of 24 cents per month. Customers may have noticed a 58-cent charge for the service on recent bills, but that, Lavender said, was a two-month billing.

Meigs County’s 911 service became operational in September, and Lavender said its use is becoming more common. In the first 20 days of its operation, the service answered 318 days, Lavender said. That number continues to increase.