AT&T will be routing 911 calls based on location

This week, AT&T made headlines by deploying its location-based routing for 911 calls made throughout the country. 

The carrier revealed that they have rolled out the new feature to select areas in the country. If you place a 911 call from these areas, your call will be routed accurately within 50 meters of its location. This is a big comparison from the previous strategy of routing calls based on cell towers that picked up the call signal. It can be an area covered by up to 10 miles. 

Because of the old method, there are some delays for emergency services to reach the location a call was made. And in a life-and-death situation, this delay can already be very crucial. 

AT&T promises that this new feature won’t track the location of the mobile device. It will only be used once a 911 call is made. At the same time, AT&T says that only the dispatcher handling the call will receive the location of the caller. 

As mentioned, the feature is only available in select states. AT&T hopes to cover the whole country by the end of June. 

Source: Wirefly