MNOs mandated to provide accurate emergency caller location.
Advanced Mobile Location (AML) is an innovative location technology that combines network and device-based technologies to quickly and accurately determine the location of a call made to emergency services from a mobile phone. This technology has the potential to save lives, as demonstrated in a live AML trial in Lithuania where a seven-year-old boy found his father unconscious and called emergency services. The Cell ID location gave the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) a radius of 14km, but thanks to the trial, high accuracy AML data was available and enabled the ambulance to be dispatched without delay, saving the patient’s life.
AML has helped move emergency services location forward, but it is not without its challenges. It relies on GNSS and Wi-Fi which can be unreliable in dense urban areas with large buildings. Additionally, the success rate of AML-enabled calls is between 40-60%, which can mean it is not getting the location information to the PSAP in time, if at all.
The industry is pushing for the 80th percentile—i.e., 80+% of all emergency calls should provide a dispatchable location (<50m error) to the PSAP. SS8 Networks has combined both mobile network and handset data with intelligent logic and patented location algorithms to produce the highest possible accuracy and reliability.
MNOs have been mandated to provide feedback on how they can improve location accuracy for emergency services by the end of 2023. It is expected that the EU and then national governments will take the feedback into consideration and mandate the provision of high accuracy location solutions to emergency services.
MNOs have the opportunity to get ahead of the game and save lives by rolling out high accuracy location technology. 5G can transform location completely, with the potential for even greater precision, as good or better than GNSS levels of accuracy. MNOs can enjoy the competitive advantage of being first out the gate with any new technology, as well as the reputational benefit of being able to say that they are the safest network, that supports emergency services with the highest reliable, fastest access available today.
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