AT&T will now use a device’s GPS location to route 911 calls

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

AT&T is the first carrier in the country to use location-based routing for emergency calls, which allows the company to transmit wireless emergency calls to the correct call center based on a device's gps location. The feature will allow the carrier to locate and route calls within 50 meters of where they were placed.

AT&T used to route calls based on the location of the cell tower that picked up the call signal. It's possible that a call center miles away or a whole town over could receive your call, potentially delaying the time it takes for emergency services to reach your location. In theory, location-based routing is supposed to help solve this problem by connecting callers with the appropriate call centers for the fastest response times.

According to Fierce Wireless, AT&T won't use the feature to track the locations of mobile devices and only turns it on when you call to emergency services. The outlet was told by an AT&T spokesman that only the call center employees will get your location information. The black market for location data was revealed in a report from Motherboard in 2019.

It won't be possible to start location-based routing nationwide. The feature has been live in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Guam. AT&T says it will add support for additional regions over the course of the next several weeks and expects nationwide support by the end of June.

The FCC ordered AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to transmit vertical location information to call centers with the goal of helping them identify the precise location of a caller from within a multi-story building. The FCC gave carriers until June 2nd, 2022, to certify their deployment after they missed a deadline.