The information will be useful to help locate callers who do not know exactly where they are when making emergency calls.
The mobile telecommunications industry and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have co-operated to provide emergency service organisations - police, fire and ambulance Services - with automatic access to the approximate location of emergency callers to Triple Zero (000).
The three big Australian mobile carriers, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, have worked through Communications Alliance on a new location capability that requires the mobile carriers to make available as much information about a caller’s location as is available when transferring the call to emergency services.
A limited number of emergency service organisations , will initially take up the enhanced location service over summer months, but it is expected that most emergency services in each state and territory will adopt the additional location information over the next nine months.
The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), the peak industry body for the mobile telecommunications industry, said the new capability would automatically send a mobile carrier’s best fix on the location of a person calling Triple Zero.
AMTA CEO Chris Althaus, said the new updated system would enhance location information for mobile callers to Triple Zero (000). “We welcome the introduction of the new emergency location system. It has its limits as it won’t pinpoint the exact location of an emergency caller, but it will provide another important level of location information to assist emergency services,” he said.
“The information provided will be an estimate of the approximate position of the emergency caller and accuracy of mobile networks relies on a number of factors, including the caller’s location, the design, construction and configurations of base stations and the number of base stations in a particular area.”
The ACMA’s latest telecommunications performance report says that 66.5% of the 8.5 million calls to emergency services in 2013-14 were made from mobile phones.
Althaus said the new system would be of most benefit to those in an emergency who were distressed, disoriented or lost and did not know their location. The new system would be able to provide an estimate of the caller’s approximate location and assist emergency services in finding them.
“The majority of callers to Triple Zero will have a fairly clear idea of their location to inform the emergency service operator, but there are times and situations when an injured caller is not familiar with his or her surrounds and the new system will give an approximate position and aid Police, Fire and Ambulance Services,” he said.
Althaus said the new capability would not replace the requirement for mobile callers to Triple Zero (000) to inform the operator of their location if possible.
