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Vertical and Indoor 9-1-1 Location Mapping

Today more and more people rely on mobile phones as their primary phone service and are disconnecting wireline service altogether.  As a result, more 9-1-1 calls are being placed from mobile phones than ever before, including from inside buildings where E9-1-1 mobile phone location technology does not work very well.  Thanks to new FCC rules on this topic, wireless carriers and major industry technology players are now working to quickly address this issue.

NG9-1-1 data standards already support indoor location in the form of sub address elements for street addresses, such as floor and room number.  Indoor locations can also be expressed as coordinates (latitude, longitude, and elevation).  New location technology solutions are emerging that will make calculation of indoor positions for mobile phones during a 9-1-1 call possible.

As a result 3D and indoor location is coming to 9-1-1. But much work needs to be done in order to meet the objective of reducing emergency response times by leveraging indoor location.  In particular, indoor map data and new PSAP mapping and emergency responder applications are needed  to provide valuable spatial context around a 9-1-1 caller location.

GeoComm is at the forefront of indoor mapping for 9-1-1, and is working with industry, standards bodies, technology vendors, and 9-1-1 authorities alike to innovate this “next” next generation of 9-1-1, to make indoor location for 9-1-1 a reality.

February 21, 2017

GIS Resources

Digital Mapping: Transforming the Way We Navigate and Analyze Geographic Data

Introduction Digital mapping has revolutionized the way we visualize, analyze, and interact with geographic data. Unlike traditional paper maps, digital maps are dynamic, interactive, and easily updated, enabling users to integrate multiple data layers for better decision-making. A subset of this mapping, GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping, uses specialized software to analyze and interpret spatial...

Carbon County 9-1-1 Indoor Maps Project

The Carbon County Pennsylvania Communications Center recently partnered with GeoComm to create GIS-based indoor maps for buildings throughout their county. These indoor maps would be valuable and vital pieces of information for their dispatchers and first responders to aid in improving situational awareness and decreasing response times. Carbon County Communications Center dispatchers access their indoor maps in RapidSOS Portal, provided by GeoComm partner RapidSOS.

Life-Saving Z-Axis Data in the Emergency Communication Center

When a 9-1-1 call is placed, the caller’s location is a primary piece of information that dispatchers need to deploy emergency response personnel. Where is the caller located? What do their surroundings look like? Could something about that location be an obstacle or even hazardous to first responders?