GPS is a cornerstone for emergency services

Many of us have had to call for emergency services, whether as a bystander, for a loved one, or ourselves.

In that moment, you are focused on being able to communicate with someone who can send emergency personnel to your exact location. As fast as possible. GPS plays a part in all three – communicating with someone, defining your exact location, and reaching you as fast as possible.

Photo: katifcam / iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images

Timing signals from GPS satellites are critical to our communications networks, allowing callers to communicate with emergency services. This is because cell phone networks rely on GPS timing receivers to keep all their base stations perfectly synchronized, which allows mobile handsets to share limited radio spectrum more efficiently.

Location is one of the most important pieces of information on which first responders depend to provide timely emergency services. “Every minute counts” encapsulates the benefits accrued from integrating information derived from GPS signals into the emergency services infrastructure. To illustrate the importance of this information, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) January 2024 Report and Order on location-based routing for wireless 911 calls estimates this technology will improve call time responses by up to a minute, saving nearly 14,000 lives annually. Outdated systems — still operating in many areas — use cell towers, which can be as far as 10 miles away, as a reference point
for the caller’s location to dispatch emergency services. These systems misroute more than 20 million calls annually, wasting precious minutes in locating those in need. Updating these systems will enable first responders to efficiently locate and navigate to the person in need.

It is critical that federal, state and local governments continue to fund the adoption and operation of innovative, timesaving and accurate solutions to better serve the public. Your loved ones deserve nothing less.

Coming Soon: Next Generation 911

One of the ways in which GPS is being used in emergency response systems is through Next Generation 911 (NG911), a service that makes more precise location information widely available to first responders. Once fully implemented, NG911 will provide dispatchers real-time locations derived from callers’ phones and accept text messages, videos, and photos. Why is this important? NENA: The 9-1-1 Association, estimates 80% or more calls are placed from GNSS-enabled cell phones.

More than 40 states have begun to adopt NG911, according to an April 2024 Congressional Research Service report. Most of these states are still in the early stages of implementation. Many call centers continue to use legacy systems that do not use technology optimized to save lives.

A GPS III satellite model provided by GPSIA member Lockheed Martin was on display at the NG911 Institute’s Technology Showcase this spring, reminding attendees of the important role GPS satellites play today and in future NG911-enabled emergency services.

Accessible Emergency Services Serve Everyone

To bridge this gap between adoption and full implementation of NG911, third-party groups and regulators are jumping in to make vital improvements. Organizations such as accesSOS, a non- profit started by Gabriella Wong, shed light on the need for more accessible emergency services. Wong was inspired to develop the accesSOS app after her deaf father was left unable to call for help in two emergency situations. Today, approximately 50% of 911 call centers in the United States cannot accept text messages. accesSOS allows deaf and hard of hearing individuals to quickly describe their situation through an easily navigable user interface, which is then translated into a phone call made to 911 on behalf of the person in need. accesSOS uses GPS location data collected from phones to bridge the accessibility gap between areas that are using outdated systems and individuals who are left unattended by those systems.

accesSOS’ solution, along with many other ones, were on display at NG911 Institute’s Technology Showcase, including GPSIA member Garmin’s inReach-enabled devices. This service supports more than 210 dialects and languages and is available in more than 200 countries and territories. By supporting a vast array of languages, Garmin’s inReach technology exemplifies another aspect of accessibility where regulators can take additional action — overcoming language barriers.

In the United States, it is estimated that non-English speakers face wait times of 5-10 minutes when trying to connect with emergency services in their native languages. In some emergency situations, those minutes can be the difference between life and death. Industry is leading the way by ensuring personnel at their call centers can communicate in multiple languages with people who need help, regardless of the language they may be speaking.
By continuing to promote GPS- enabled solutions such as accesSOS, NG911, and inReach, we are ensuring the safety of our communities and our loved ones. The GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) is proud to support the further integration of GPS into the emergency services infrastructure by uplifting innovative research and design efforts and promoting new ideas that provide lifesaving services to users across the globe.

When Highly Accurate Location Information is Not Appropriate

While providing a highly accurate location for a caller is essential to certain types of emergency response services, such accuracy is not warranted when calls are made to 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Since its nationwide rollout in July 2022, the Lifeline service has routed more than 9.6 million calls, texts and chats to crisis centers.

Preserving the caller’s privacy while quickly routing the call to the nearest crisis center is of the utmost importance. To preserve privacy, the caller’s precise location should not be shared. However, routing a call to a crisis center associated with the caller’s
area code — not disclosing the caller’s location — is not the answer either because the portability of mobile phone area codes has decoupled area codes from caller location. To address these shortcomings while preserving the caller’s privacy, the FCC has adopted a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking suggesting that wireless carriers route 988 calls to nearby crisis support centers using the location of the nearest cell tower, which can be located within 10 miles of the caller, rather than using a device’s location or the caller’s address.

GPS is still integral to communications between the caller and Lifeline. This case illustrates how diverse GPS-enabled technologies and solutions support a wide range of emergency response services.

If you or a loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis, please dial or text 988 to reach a crisis counselor.