Wireless Emergency Services

Abstract

Generally speaking, wireless emergency services can refer to any services that provide immediate help to mobile phone users under emergency conditions. The first widely used WES (wireless emergency services) application is the Wireless Emergency Call Service, which extends the traditional Emergency Call Service (ECS) from fixed-line telephone networks to wireless telephone networks. In the middle of the 1990s, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC; 1996) issued the order FCC 94-102, requiring wireless carriers to provide the Enhanced 911 Service, the first WECS that delivers emergency calls made from mobile phones as well as caller location information to public-safety answer points (PSAPs). Other countries and regions have planned or implemented similar WECS. For example, the Coordination Group on Access to Location Information by Emergency Services (2002) planned the implementation of E112 service in the European Union.