UK shows the way towards accurate caller location

06 November 2014
by eena -- last modified 06 November 2014

Caller location in case of an emergency is a fundamental element for the protection of citizens in distress. In the UK, with 60% of emergency calls to 112 and 999 made from mobile phones, caller location is often imprecise. A new service, produced in the UK by BT, EE and HTC, comes to address this problem. Advanced Mobile Location (AML) is up to 4,000 times more accurate than the current system used, saving lives, time, and money.

 When an emergency call is made with a smart phone where AML is enabled, the phone automatically activates its location service to establish its position and sends this information via a text message to the 112 and 999 services, with a radius of 30 meters or less. For that, the service uses GPS or wifi – whichever is best at the given instance.

Gary Machado, Executive Director of EENA stated:

"Inadequate caller location information has been an obstacle for emergency services all over Europe for many years. The UK has taken the lead and created an innovative, cost effective solution and EENA congratulates BT, EE and HTC. This exemplar work should be replicated in other European countries and we urge other mobile network operators, handset manufacturers, 112 agencies and regulatory authorities to follow suit as expeditiously as possible".

EENA is delighted to see such an important development taking place and would like to warmly congratulate John Medland, BT's 999 Policy Manager, who said:

"This is a major breakthrough and will undoubtedly help save lives. It is obviously vital for the emergency services to get fast, accurate information so they can pinpoint where an incident is and provide help as quickly as possible. AML will help to cut response times, particularly for calls where there is only minimal location information. We're really looking forward to the other mobile networks and manufacturers making this available too, and are working with all UK mobile networks to help this happen."

Lastly, we would like to congratulate all involved parties for this great achievement. We hope that this will serve as an example all around Europe showing that better protection of citizens can and should be achieved.

EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, is a Brussels-based NGO set up in 1999 dedicated to promoting high-quality emergency services reached by the number 112 throughout the EU. EENA serves as a discussion platform for emergency services, public authorities, decision makers, researchers, associations and solution providers with a view to improving the emergency response in accordance with citizens' requirements. EENA is also promoting the establishment of an efficient system for alerting citizens about imminent or developing emergencies.

EENA, the European Emergency Number Association