Apple has announced that iOS 11.3, coming this spring, will support Advanced Mobile Location (AML). This technology is used when an emergency call is being placed to send accurate location data of the caller in distress directly to the emergency services.
The European Emergency Number Association (EENA) has congratulated Apple for “this great achievement that will make people safer and save lives. In the countries where AML is already operational on smartphones, many lives have been saved thanks to this technology. The upcoming iOS update is therefore a major improvement in the daily work of emergency and rescue services, adds the organization behind AML.
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. The services uses either GNSS or Wi-Fi, depending on which one is better at the given moment.