AT&T just announced a major upgrade to its current 911 location service, which will result in faster, more accurate tracking of 911 calls. This is the first US carrier to launch so-called location-based routing to automatically route 911 calls to the appropriate 911 call centers across the country. The new feature added to the current 911 location service is called “Locate for route” and was built specifically for AT&T by Intrado. It allows the carrier to accurately identify where a 911 wireless call is coming from using device GPS and hybrid information to route the call to the appropriate 911 call center.
Thanks to location-based routing, AT&T can now locate a device and route it within 50 meters of its location. Without the upgrade, 911 wireless calls were routed based on the location of cell towers, which can cover a 10-mile radius, so the difference is astonishing.
AT&T’s enhanced 911 location service is rolling out nationwide, but is currently only available in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Guam. More regions will be added in the coming weeks and the nationwide rollout is expected to be fully completed by the end of June.