Google Expanding Emergency Location Service to US
Google said it’s launching emergency location service (ELS) for Android in the U.S., in combination with RapidSOS, T-Mobile and West, to bring more accurate location more quickly to 911 call centers. “Accurately locating someone during an emergency call is critical…
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for reducing response time and can be the difference between life and death,” said a Wednesday Google blog post. “More than 80 percent of emergency calls come from mobile phones, but locating these phones can be challenging as traditional emergency location technologies can fail indoors or have a radius that’s too big to be useful.” ELS “provides a more accurate location both indoors and outdoors by using a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile networks and sensors -- the same high-accuracy location you see when using Google Maps,” the company said. Apple said in June it's working with RapidSOS on similar technology (see 1806180003). Google already launched ELS in the U.S. Virgin Islands through a partnership with West and Viya, a regional carrier.