Emergency Call Location

Delivering the geographical location of an Emergency Caller to the Emergency Centre or Public Safety Answering Point is mandated in North America and for European Union (EU) member countries. This mandate has also been adopted into national legislation of non EU-countries such as Switzerland and Norway.

For USA the accuracy requirement is 100 meters for 67 percent of calls and 300 meters for 95 percent of calls for network-based solutions and 50 meters for 67 percent of calls and 150 meters for 95 percent of calls for handset-based solutions.

Our interpretation of the EU-directive is that the accuracy made available for commercial services by the Mobile Operator should also be used for Emergency Call location as long as this accuracy is no worse than that obtained by providing the coverage area of the radio base station connecting the emergency caller. An extension of the current EU directive calls for automatic, so called push-location, of all emergency calls. The FCC also demands automatic location of Emergency Callers. It is believed that the EU will increase the accuracy requirement when the European satellite navigation system (Galileo) becomes commercially operational.

The Mobile Arts solution for Emergency Call location integrates with Emergency Centres/Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and offer both on-demand (pull) location and automatic (push) location of Emergency Callers.

References

• DIRECTIVE 2002/22/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 7 March 2002 on universal service and users' rights relating to electronic communications networks and services (Universal Service Directive)
• DIRECTIVE 2009/136/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 November 2009 amending Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks and services, Directive 2002/58/EC concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector and Regulation (EC)

  No 2006/2004 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws

• Docket No. 94-102, Revision of the Commission’s Rules to Ensure Compatibility with Enhanced 911 Emergency Calling Systems