AT&T adding 911 update to phone service

New feature utilizes GPS in locating wireless callers

AT&T has announced an upgrade to 911 that will make it easier for emergency services to locate wireless phone callers during emergencies in Arkansas.

The “Locate Before Route” feature uses device GPS rather than cell towers to identify the location of a 911 call from a mobile phone, said Matt Lawson of AT&T Media Relations. While cell towers could identify a caller’s location within an area of 10 miles, GPS allows AT&T to identify this location within 50 meters, allowing public safety to respond faster during an emergency, Lawson said.

The upgrade, which is only available on the AT&T network, is the first of its kind and now works automatically for wireless 911 calls on the network across the state, he said, and AT&T expects to launch the feature nationwide before the end of June.

Juana Green, the 911 director for Little Rock, said she has heard many stories of callers who were near the border of joining jurisdictions at the time of an emergency. She said those calls have the potential to be routed to the wrong public safety answering point, or 911 call center.

For example, Green said she’s heard on multiple occasions about cell towers routing west Little Rock calls to Pulaski County first, then needing to transfer them to the Little Rock answering point. She said having the 911 call go directly to the correct point initially can improve call answer times.

Arkansas 911 Board Executive Director C.J. Engel said in a state which currently has 98 public safety answering points, these transfers happen regularly. Each time a center transfers a call, emergency responders lose seconds or minutes as people re-tell their stories two or three times. Transfers also raise the risk of 911 dialers dropping the call, he said.

But with the new technology, Engel believes this will change.

“We expect that this capability will reduce the number of 911 transfers and put you to the right place, the majority of the time,” Engel said.

While AT&T is currently the only platform to offer location-based routing, Engel said other companies are working on rolling out their own versions of the product. This won’t be a problem, Engel said, as those without AT&T won’t lose any capabilities with their carriers. They will receive the same 911 service as before, he said.

When asked about other carriers, Green similarly said she has no concern that the feature is only available on AT&T.

“It’s just a matter of time before the others catch on,” she said.

However, Engel also added that location-based routing won’t “happen automatically,” as Arkansas’ 911 infrastructure has remained the same for 30 years and is currently undergoing updates needed before location-based routing can function. He said only nine of the state’s call centers have been upgraded with the necessary Next Generation 911 services, but the 911 Board is working as fast as possible to ensure all call centers can handle the new capability.

But AT&T Sales Director Josh Harris, whose team has responsibility for all AT&T retail stories in Arkansas, said AT&T’s location-based routing works with all 911 call centers nationwide, “whether they’re operating under older technology or NextGen 911.” He said there is other location-based routing technology available today that only works with NextGen.

He said although it’s crucial for all call centers to receive those NextGen services as soon as possible, “we’re not there as an industry.” Harris said AT&T customers will be able to take advantage of the update without having to take any action and that location-based routing is the best solution to improve emergency response times, especially for calls from remote locations.

“We’ve all heard stories of people who get lost while camping, their cars run off the road, they’re trapped, and they really can’t tell 911 operators where they are,” Harris said. “With this location-based routing, call centers can better find your location using GPS on your phone.”

According to AT&T, 80% of today’s 911 calls are made from mobile devices, meaning the new technology “fills a significant need.” Additionally, 68% of American adults live in homes without landlines, a 2021 study by the National Center for Health Statistics found. When AT&T and the Federal Communications Commission created the United States’ 911 system in 1968, however, landlines dominated the telephone market.

In response to the “tremendous growth” of mobile 911 calls, AT&T launched the feature to ensure the public continues to have fast and reliable connection to the correct answering point. Now, when AT&T customers call 911 from a mobile phone, the network identifies the device’s location and routes the call to nearest call center, sending first responders to the scene faster than before.

Harris said AT&T has been working on this upgrade for a long time, but only recently did the technology become available.

“AT&T jumped all over that technology update,” he said. “That was a very exciting moment for AT&T.”