Ministers launch text mobile location rescue service
The service has been heralded as a significant development that will improve response times to emergencies in rural locations, and potentially save lives.
In most cases, the advanced mobile location service will give the emergency services a person’s location within 50m of where they are making the call, with pilot testing finding the estimated average accuracy is within 25m.
Advanced mobile location works by automatically finding a phone’s GPS co-ordinates and sending a text message to the call centre when a 112 or 999 number is dialled. The co-ordinates are immediately passed to the emergency services in responding and dispatching emergency personnel to callers.
However, the service is only available on Android phones. When an emergency call is made with an advanced mobile location-enabled smartphone, the device automatically activates its location service during the first 25 seconds of the call and attempts to establish its position.
Google’s built-in location services, used by apps such as Google Maps, are used to determine the phone’s location using GPS information, nearby wifi signals, and nearby mobile masts. Once a location is known, the device sends information via automatic text to the Emergency Call Answering Service, which answers all emergency calls in Ireland and connects callers to the requested emergency service.
The advanced mobile location is made available to the emergency services when the emergency call is connected to them. The advanced mobile location service automatically kicks in when a 999 or 112 call is made, and there is no need for the caller to do anything extra to activate the process. Furthermore, there is no app required for the service. It is present in Android phones with the 4.4 ‘KitKat’ operating system that has version 9 of Google Play Services.
The Department of Communications, Climate Action, and Environment launched the service yesterday, and said advanced mobile location locations are transmitted directly to the Emergency Call Answering Service and are available to the emergency services on a call-by-call basis only.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten said Emergency Call Answering Service receives, on average, 4,000 mobile calls per day and that Android market penetration stands at over 50% here.
“This means the new system will be a huge benefit to people in need and to the emergency services across the country, but particularly in rural areas,” he said.
