STS implements advanced mobile location tech for 112 emergency line

The Special Telecommunications Service (STS) has implemented an advanced mobile location (AML) technology solution that allows geographic tracking of calls made to the 112 emergency line, exclusively during the emergency call.

"The solution was implemented by the Special Telecommunications Service (STS) jointly with mobile communications operators and in partnership with Google and Apple. This technology enables geographic tracking of calls made to the 112 emergency line, exclusively during the emergency call and by no means under different circumstances. AML helps people with hearing and/or speech disabilities texting 113 on phones running on the Android operating system," STS reported on Wednesday.

The AML solution, developed and made available to emergency services free of charge in order to assist smartphone users in emergencies, does not require installation of additional components or applications and has an accuracy of metres/tens of metres.

"At this moment, AML is available throughout the country, and when people call 112 STS operators and dispatchers of the responding agencies have the geographical coordinates with a much greater accuracy. We have performed tests, analysed various technical-operational scenarios and integrated all the necessary configurations, so that this technology may help callers as much as possible. At the same time, the legislation needed to be updated in order to implement this technology. We continue the demarches for the modernisation of the 112 System, under a project funded from European funds, which we hope to conclude in 2021," STS First Deputy Director Ionel-Sorin Balan is quoted as saying in the statement.

STS engineers and programmers collaborated with Google's Android ELS team for nearly five months to perform preliminary tests and improve 112 call tracking accuracy. The implementation was conducted in conjunction with the major mobile services providers in Romania, who carried out works on their own infrastructures to facilitate the transmission of AML information to the emergency line.

At the same time, the 112 emergency call system's infrastructure was configured to allow the reception of the geographical position transmitted from iOS phones, as confirmed by Apple following the tests it has performed so far.

At the end of March, the iOS operating system was updated to version 13.4, allowing the provision of AML location for iPhone users as well. Unlike the solution offered by Google, Apple handsets transmit the position to the emergency line 112 only in the case of emergency calls, but do not support emergency texting to the 113 line.

APEL 112 mobile application can be downloaded for free from Google Play and App Store on all smart phones. The application allows users to call the emergency service by a single touch on the screen and, at the same time, to transmit the position of the phone to the 112 line.

According to the European Emergency Number Association 112 (EENA), the AML tracking solution is operational in 19 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Norway, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Slovenia, the United States, Sweden and the UK.