Emergency Call Day 112: No rescue without location data
The EU sets standards for 112 emergency call location, but not all calls can be located. In Germany, SIM-less devices are disadvantaged.
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This article was already published last year on Emergency Call Day. We have updated it.
Anyone who wants to quickly assist someone in need requires the location of the emergency. The EU sets rules for the further expansion and effectiveness of the single European emergency number 112.
Thus, the Court of Justice of the European Union stipulated in a ruling from 2019 that the location of emergency calls under 112 must be determined "as reliably and accurately as is necessary for emergency services to be able to effectively assist the caller", within the scope of technical feasibility. The background to the ruling was a murder following a rape of a 17-year-old in Lithuania. The teenager had been kidnapped on September 21, 2013. Locked in a car trunk, she was able to make a dozen calls for help to the Lithuanian emergency center via 112, but the caller's location could not be determined at the time. The victim was burned alive in the trunk and could not be saved.
Access to emergency services via the emergency number 112 is regulated in the EU via a delegated regulation. For example, for fixed networks, caller location information must be provided by the physical address of the network termination point, such as street, apartment, floor, or similar information. However, the majority of emergency calls in Europe are not made via a fixed device, but via a mobile phone – in 2023, this averaged 82 percent of all emergency calls across the member states.
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For mobile networks, the location must be specified in meters to determine the maximum radius of the horizontal search area. If necessary, the height or vertical accuracy must also be indicated, which can be relevant, for example, in cities with high-rise buildings or in parking garages.
Advanced Mobile Location in Smartphones
Modern smartphones have AML (Advanced Mobile Location) integrated into their system, which enables more precise location determination. In the event of an emergency call, the smartphone automatically activates GPS, WLAN, and other sensors to determine its location and transmits this data via SMS or HTTPS to a central emergency call inquiry point. The control center that receives the emergency call can then retrieve this data from the central endpoint in Germany and thus locate the mobile phone more easily. If precise location determination of smartphones via AML does not work, emergency services should be able to fall back on network-based location determination (cell tower). Furthermore, there is the idea that in the project "112 – AI rettet Leben", an AI should help with building descriptions to quickly narrow down the location if no GPS signal is available. "In about 30 percent of cases, automatic location transmission does not work or only works with a delay," explained Jörg Pfeifer, head of department at DRK Bodensee-Oberschwaben.
The EU member states must regularly report to the European Commission on how they ensure effective access to emergency services via the emergency number 112 and implement the EU requirements. According to the latest report from the EU Commission from December 2024, "the use of caller location data obtained from the mobile device (...) has further improved in the EU". AML is thus available in almost all member states. The European Emergency Number Association (EENA) stated in its latest country report (PDF) that only Cyprus, Malta, and Poland are still missing in the EU. Poland announced that it would introduce all AML functionalities in 2027.
Emergency Call without SIM Card?
The murder victim in Lithuania used a smartphone without a SIM card – the phone number, device information, and location were not transmitted at the time. In 19 EU member states, it is possible to make an emergency call without a SIM card. However, in Germany, the motto has been for years: No emergency call without a SIM card. According to the Emergency Call Ordinance, emergency calls from mobile phones without a SIM card are not permitted. An "operational" SIM card is always required. SIM-less emergency calls were abolished due to too many cases of misuse of emergency calls.
AML fundamentally only works with a SIM card and mobile reception. In contrast to Apple, Google uses its own extension of AML for Android called ELS (Emergency Location Service), which transmits more data to the control center via HTTPS protocol in an emergency and is not reliant on SMS. An Android device with WLAN access could therefore transmit its location even without a SIM card.
Post updated and supplemented with current reading tips.
(vza)
