Americans use wireless every day, everywhere. There are more wireless connections than people in the U.S., and the average person checks their smartphone 150 times per day. While communicating with our family, friends and co-workers through wireless is convenient and beneficial, at its core, a mobile device is a public safety tool connecting us to 9-1-1. Today, approximately 70 percent of all 9-1-1 calls are wireless.

Unlike a call made from a landline phone in a fixed location, wireless calls to 9-1-1 can be made from anywhere. Over the past 18 years, the wireless industry worked to offer the most accurate location information of a wireless 9-1-1 call using the best available technologies.

A wireless call to 9-1-1 is routed to a 9-1-1 call center based on the tower through which the call is routed (called Phase I), and the 9-1-1 call center can request more granular location information to locate the caller (called Phase II). The wireless industry worked tirelessly to improve the Phase II location information using network- and handset-based technologies, including Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite technology in combination with cell site position, to deliver a coordinate range to the 9 1 1 call center – known as a Public Safety Answering Point, or PSAP – that could be mapped to a specific location.

A wireless call will be routed to a 9-1-1 call center in 5 seconds or less, and the more granular location information is available within 15-30 seconds as the wireless network accounts for all of the different technologies being used to generate the location fix, including the distance between the caller and the towers, the satellite signals the device can “see,” and potential interference from physical objects or other wireless signals.

At the same time, the wireless network is generating a location fix for a 9-1-1 call, the 9 1 1 call center has equipment that turns the location information collected from the caller and wireless network into information that will be sent to first responders on the scene. Due to the timing differences between the wireless network and PSAP’s equipment generating the location information, 9-1-1 Best Practices  suggest that the 9 1 1 call taker "re-bid," or request updated location information from the wireless network (usually a quick keystroke) to make sure the PSAP equipment gets the most up to date information.

Often, the 9-1-1 call center’s equipment can be configured to automatically request updated location information at intervals specified by the PSAP (e.g., every 15 seconds). In 2013, several 9-1-1 call centers worked with wireless carriers and discovered that their re-bid processes and automatic re bidding were not being fully utilized. In response, we understand that several PSAPs indicated they planned to change their procedures to make full use of location information being provided by wireless carriers.

A wireless 9-1-1 call is a carefully constructed and balanced process between wireless and PSAP technology developed over 20 years of 9-1-1-only technologies. Today’s 9 1 1 only location technologies work well for the intended outdoor purposes, but they don’t have the same capabilities that we know from the LBS technologies we use every day on our smartphones, both outdoors and indoors. That’s why the FCC, public safety and the wireless industry are working hard to enable a new approach to wireless 9-1-1 location information within the next two years.

For first responders, the FCC’s new rules will help find wireless 9-1-1 callers faster and more accurately than we do today using a “dispatchable location,” which means street address plus the floor, suite number or apartment number and a new, aggressive 50 meter accuracy benchmark for all outdoor and indoor wireless 9-1-1 calls.

The wireless industry’s constant innovation and evolution of network- and handset based technologies has enabled additional opportunities to improve 9 1 1 location accuracy, particularly indoors.

While many Americans use location based service (LBS) technologies every day, such as apps that tell you the closest Italian restaurant, the wireless industry will harness LBS technologies, including Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth beacons that are available across the country, to improve 9-1-1 location information for wireless 9-1-1 calls made indoors.

When a wireless caller makes a 9-1-1 call, the wireless network will connect the voice call and simultaneously launch numerous “data stream” processes to determine a caller’s location utilizing the latest LBS technologies, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beacons. Thus, a 9-1-1 call taker would know that, for example, the 9-1-1 call was placed from within a few feet of a Wi-Fi router registered to a coffee shop at a particular street address. This information will be automatically transmitted to a 9-1-1 call center in a short amount of time, often in less than 10 seconds. Similar to the current process, individual 9-1-1 call center equipment and processes will determine the call handling.

Improvements to wireless 9-1-1 location accuracy both outdoors and indoors will also be found from innovative satellite and network based technologies.

The location based services (LBS) that we use on our cellphones for maps, directions and photo tagging have been wildly successful and reset everyone’s expectations about the potential for increased location accuracy in every facet of our lives.

Until very recently, we’ve been using location technologies that were built only for 9 1 1 purposes. These 9-1-1 only location technologies work well for the intended outdoor purposes, but they don’t have the same capabilities that we know from the LBS technologies we use today outdoors and indoors. This new approach to using dispatchable address will be similar to the LBS technologies in use today, but with added authentication and features, such as vertical information like a floor number.

The wireless carriers are working to implement new requirements to deliver a “dispatchable location” or meet a 50 meter target for latitude/longitude information as quickly as possible. The FCC recently established new aggressive timelines that require wireless carriers to deliver a dispatchable location or meet the 50 meter target within two years and increasing to 80% of all wireless 9-1-1 calls within six years.

Wireless carriers are meeting the FCC’s requirements for Phase II wireless 9-1-1 location information. The FCC’s Phase II rules only apply to outdoor wireless 9-1-1 calls which was how consumers mostly called 9-1-1 twenty years ago.

Remember that if an emergency happened 20 years ago inside an apartment, office or other tall building, people would likely use the landline phone. Today, more than 40% of Americans are wireless-only, and the vast majority are “wireless-mostly” for communications. The FCC’s January 2015 9-1-1 Location Accuracy Order responds to the ways wireless consumers are calling 9-1-1 today, increasingly from indoors, by encouraging the development of dispatchable location solutions and more accurate location information both outdoors and indoors.

Wireless carrier data submitted to the FCC in 2013 demonstrates, for example in California, that Phase II location information was available for over 90% of wireless calls to 9-1-1. This data demonstrates that wireless carriers are acquiring Phase II location information for wireless calls to 9-1-1 in accordance with FCC rules and Public Safety best practices.

While some 9-1-1 call centers expressed concerns about the availability of wireless 9-1-1 location information, detailed analysis (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless) demonstrated that wireless carriers deliver 9-1-1 calls in compliance with FCC rules and best practices. Indeed, other 9-1-1 call centers in states like Washington  and Texas  noted that they weren’t seeing a degradation in wireless carriers’ offering Phase II data during a wireless call to 9-1-1.

The FCC’s new rules and the Roadmap to Improve 9-1-1 Location Accuracy  adopted last year require wireless carriers to collect and report live 9-1-1 call data beginning within the next two years. The availability of live 9-1-1 call data is an important step in the wireless carriers’ significant efforts to improve 9-1-1 location information by providing 9-1-1 call centers with data to verify the improvements.

While Phase II location information is the best available information for wireless 9-1-1 calls today, wireless providers are also implementing a new approach that uses new commercial location based service (LBS) technologies to meet our evolving expectations for wireless 9-1-1 location information. The FCC established an aggressive standard and timeline to ensure this new approach enhances wireless 9-1-1 calls for the public and first responders.

Dispatchable location, identified by public safety as the “gold standard,” means street address plus the floor, suite number or apartment number. Where such a specific address is unavailable (e.g., a 9-1-1 call made from a highway), wireless carriers will meet a new, aggressive 50 meter accuracy benchmark for all wireless 9-1-1 calls.

While technology continues to improve, the laws of physics make it inherently difficult for wireless signals to penetrate indoor locations. In fact, the FCC has conducted testing of some indoor 9-1-1 specific technologies in the past with mixed results that didn’t consistently meet our expectations for improving 9-1-1 location information.

That’s why the development of a dispatchable location approach using indoor wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi and Blutetooth beacons, will help first responders locate callers indoors more accurately and reliably. In addition, the wireless industry will establish a test bed within the next year to evaluate any new technologies that can further improve wireless 9-1-1 location accuracy.

All wireless calls to 9-1-1 are delivered to a PSAP through a tower with technology that is compatible with the wireless handset, regardless of whether the caller is a valid subscriber to a carrier’s network. The call is then routed to the PSAP whose jurisdiction includes the tower through which the call is routed. The PSAPs (of which there are more 6,000 in the nation) essentially assign each tower to an individual PSAP, such that all 9-1-1- calls to a particular tower go to the same PSAP.

It’s important to note that the predominant wireless technologies in the U.S. that have enabled a competitive wireless industry are GSM and CDMA, which are not compatible with each other. That means a wireless call to 9-1-1 from a GSM-based handset will be routed through any wireless tower that supports GSM technologies, regardless of whether the caller is a valid subscriber to the GSM carrier’s network. Likewise, a wireless 9-1-1 call from a CDMA-based handset will be routed through any CDMA-configured tower, regardless of carrier. The current distinction between GSM and CDMA technologies will likely diminish as carriers transition from those standards to a common 4G LTE standard, and as PSAPs adopt Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1), which will provide more uniformity in wireless and 9-1-1 technologies.

Some vendors claimed to offer 9-1-1 specific technologies to improve indoor wireless location accuracy, but weren’t able to verify those claims to meet public safety’s needs and expectations during the FCC’s most recent public testing process.

That is why several public safety groups, the wireless industry and the FCC all agree that a dispatchable location solution based on continually evolving commercial location based services, not based on unproven vendor-specific proprietary technology, is the best way to locate callers when they are indoors and to provide continuing improvements to 9-1-1 service.

It’s also important that public safety is able to upgrade and update 9-1-1 technologies when possible and needed, instead of relying on a vendor’s proprietary technology that may not keep pace with the dynamic wireless industry. Just as consumers like to use new or updated technologies, public safety wants to be able to have the same experience so that they can best handle your wireless 9-1-1 calls.

At the same time, the wireless industry is committed to exploring new technologies – after all, the FCC now embraced the Roadmap’s plan to establish a permanent, ongoing test bed to evaluate any new technologies that can demonstrably improve 9-1-1. The wireless industry is committed to the FCC’s Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements and we are working hard with the FCC, public safety and all stakeholders to meet the public’s expectations for wireless emergency communications.