Advanced Mobile Location
Advanced Mobile Location (AML) is a free-of-charge emergency location-based service (LBS) available on smartphones that, when a caller dials the local (in country) short dial emergency telephone number, sends the best available geolocation of the caller to a dedicated end-point, usually a Public Safety Answering Point, making the location of the caller available to emergency call takers in real-time. AML improves the time taken by emergency call takers to verify the location of callers and can improve the time taken to dispatch an emergency response.
AML is a protocol to transport data with SMS and/or HTTPS from the phone to the emergency call centre in all countries that have deployed AML; it is not an app and does not require any action from the caller.[1] AML is supported in many countries, and by all smartphones running recent versions of Android or iOS, although it can be disabled in user settings.
AML was standardised by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Emergency Telecommunications Subcommittee (EMTEL)[2] in 2019 as Technical Specifications.[3]
History
[edit]AML was developed in the United Kingdom in 2014 by British Telecom, EE Limited, and HTC as a solution to problematic caller location in emergencies.[4] When a person in distress calls the emergency services with a smartphone where AML is enabled, the telephone automatically activates its location service to establish its position and sends this information to the emergency services via an SMS.[5] The services use either a global navigation satellite system or WiFi depending on which one is better at the given moment. It was estimated that this technique is up to 4000 times more accurate than the previously used system.[6]
Mobile phone support
[edit]Supported operating systems
[edit]Google announced in July 2016 that all Android phones running version 2.3.7, Gingerbread (released in December 2010) or later include AML. Google calls their implementation Emergency Location Service (ELS) or Android Emergency Location Service (AELS); this needs to be enabled in phone settings.[7]
Apple devices, since March 2018, running iOS 11.3 or later also support AML.[8]
Regional requirements
[edit]From March 2022 all smartphones sold in the EU Single Market must be equipped with AML, following a delegated regulation supplementing the Radio Equipment Directive.[9]
Geographical availability
[edit]As of May 2023[update] AML was deployed in:[10]
| Country | Region | Operating System | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
 Australia
|
Oceania | [11] | |
 Austria
|
Europe | Android only | Not all local emergency numbers supported; 112 supported |
 Belgium
|
112, 1722, 1733 supported | ||
 Bulgaria
|
|||
 Croatia
|
|||
 Czechia
|
Android, iOS | Wi-Fi supported | |
 Denmark
|
|||
 Estonia
|
Android, iOS, HarmonyOS, Jolla | ||
 France
|
|||
 Finland
|
|||
 Germany
|
Most PSAPs | ||
 Greece
|
|||
 Hungary
|
|||
 Iceland
|
|||
 Ireland
|
|||
 Latvia
|
|||
 Lithuania
|
|||
 Mexico
|
North America | Android only | Some PSAPs |
 Moldova
|
Europe | ||
 Montenegro
|
Android only | ||
 Netherlands
|
Android, iOS, HarmonyOS | ||
 North Macedonia
|
|||
 New Zealand
|
Oceania | Android, iOS | Known as Emergency Caller Location Information[12] |
 Norway
|
Europe | ||
 Portugal
|
|||
 Romania
|
Android, iOS, HarmonyOS | ||
 Slovakia
|
Android, iOS, HarmonyOS | ||
 Slovenia
|
[13][14] | ||
 Spain
|
|||
 Sweden
|
|||
 Switzerland
|
Android, iOS, HarmonyOS | ||
 United Arab Emirates
|
Middle East | ||
 United Kingdom
|
Europe | ||
 United States
|
North America | Some PSAPs | |
| (PSAPs) - Public Safety Answering Points | |||
The European Electronic Communications Code mandates that all EU states were required to implement AML by December 2020.[15]
AML also works when using emergency SMS service on Android phones in some countries.[16][better source needed]
Functionality
[edit]AML automatically turns on Wi-Fi and location services on the handset, collects and computes location data, then sends an SMS to the emergency services containing the caller's location, before turning location services and Wi-Fi off again.[1]
The service can also send the data via an HTTPS POST request to the specified endpoint. The country implementing AML decides whether to use an SMS endpoint or an HTTPS endpoint or both.
Integrating AML with emergency services' computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems can be hard which has led to the development of other systems like What3Words.[17][better source needed]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Advanced Mobile Location". eena (European Emergency Number Association). Retrieved 2019-05-04.
- ^ "Public safety & emergency communications". ETSI. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
- ^ "Emergency Communications (EMTEL);Transporting Handset Location to PSAPs for Emergency Calls - Advanced Mobile Location" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
- ^ "UK shows the way towards accurate caller location – An example for others to replicate!". www.eena.org. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
- ^ "BT, EE and HTC develop 'life-saving' mobile phone location service for 999 calls". www.v3.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
- ^ "Advanced Mobile Location pinpoints 999 calls to within 30m". ComputerWeekly. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
- ^ Kannan, Akshay (25 July 2016). "Helping emergency services find you when you need it most". Google. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
- ^ "iOS 11.3 is available today". Apple. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
- ^ "Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/320". Retrieved 2020-07-08.
- ^ "2023 AML Report Card". eena (European Emergency Number Association). 15 May 2023.
- ^ "Advanced Mobile Location has been deployed in Australia". Australian Government - Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. 16 December 2020.
- ^ "Emergency Caller Location Information". MBIE. 2024-10-14.
- ^ "Pregled števila klicev s podatki AML | Statklic". statklic.sos112.si. Archived from the original on 2022-06-26. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
- ^ "Uprava Republike Slovenije za zaščito in reševanje". www.sos112.si. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
- ^ Vivier, Benoit (18 November 2020). "AML report card: 2020 edition available now". eena.org. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
- ^ eena112 (2019-04-26), European Emergency Number Association 2019 conference via YouTube - Advanced Mobile Location, retrieved 2019-05-04
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Wakefield, Jane (21 September 2019). "What3words: 'Life-saving app' divides opinion". BBC News.