Emergency response in the digital age: why you have to go all in

Advanced Mobile Location (AML) technology has become increasingly important in emergency situations as it provides accurate location data to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) when a person makes a call or sends a text message to emergency services. 

However, AML technology has some limitations, such as depending on device location capabilities, which can result in some individuals not being accurately located during an emergency. AML may not work for roamers and relies on location data transport via SMS or HTTP, which may not be accessible for some subscribers. Additionally, emergency calls made without a SIM card will not work with AML as there is no SMSc or PGW to transport data.

Due to these limitations, the European Commission has mandated that member states establish their accuracy criteria for emergency services by early 2024 and combine network-based and handset-derived technologies. This mix of technologies ensures that even if a handset-derived caller location solution fails to make the caller location information available to the most appropriate PSAP, emergency services can rely on network-based location to come to the end user’s assistance.

By combining technologies, emergency calls or text messages are accurately routed to the most relevant PSAP, and the reliability and accuracy of the location information are ensured, whether the caller’s phone is equipped with AML or not. This means that no one is left behind, and emergency services can respond more effectively in emergency situations.

To dive deeper into understanding how the combination of AML-related data and MNO-originated location provides the most accurate and reliable location information, you can access the full article on the EENA website.