Guiding Lifesavers to You
NICC is working to ensure accurate location information can be delivered within the signalling protocols to the emergency services answering points from anywhere in the UK and from any customer device. This enables two things – that the geographically correct emergency service can be identified; and the service can be dispatched to the correct location.
In the old TDM and copper network, this was less complex. The location of a landline was fixed, and the customers physical location was directly associated with the customer’s number. Even in a PBX implementation, the number of the PBX was associated with its location, although location information for on-site and remote extensions was not always accurate.
Location of mobile devices has traditionally been a complex issue to resolve. Mechanisms have been put in place to enable callers to be located and those mechanisms are in the process of being improved as technology develops. This enables us to include more accurate location information.
Moving to the SIP world, delivering accurate location information is proving more problematical for some use cases, implementations and customer equipment.
The EmLoc TG is looking to ensure that accurate location information is automatically available to the emergency services for as many emergency calls as possible.
See the current work of the EmLoc Task Group.