This disclosure relates in general to determining information about a location of a mobile device and, but not by way of limitation, to transmitting such real-time information to an public safety answering point (PSAP) amongst other things.
Nearly all locations within the United States and Canada are now served by “911” emergency telephone service, and many other countries have similar services that can have a different telephone number. In the 911 system, calls to the telephone number 9-1-1 are specially routed to a PSAP, where a specially-trained dispatcher can assess the nature of the emergency, offer assistance, dispatch emergency services or law enforcement personnel to the source of the call, or provide other services. Many PSAPs are interconnected to allow routing calls and other information between them.
The 911 service facilitates rapid response by the appropriate authorities in cases of emergency. However, sending the appropriate authorities to the scene of an emergency requires information about the location of the emergency. While a call from a land line can be easily attributed to an address associated with the number. It is less certain that a call from a mobile device can be traced to a particular address, and accountholder address is certainly less accurate at any given moment than that for a land line.
The location finding technology available to PSAPs is not generally accessible to other third parties that might be called or even to application layer software on the phone. Tracing the location by a third party is not possible today. If the individual is unable to sufficiently articulate and describe his location, the third party cannot determine where to send emergency personnel.