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How it works

ELS delivers fast and accurate location information.

With multiple location signals for greater accuracy.

In many countries today, emergency call centres only receive mobile-based location information. In other countries, emergency location is estimated using GPS – falling back to mobile tower triangulation if GPS is unavailable.

Yet mobile-based location radii are often kilometers wide. And GPS performance tends to be poor indoors, underground or in city centres with tall buildings.

With ELS, the device automatically sends location information when a user contacts a configured emergency number. This happens via a location request made to the Android Fused Location provider. FLP allows us to derive a more accurate location as quickly as possible, using a variety of location signals. And the best part: it works both indoors and outdoors.

Enhance your emergency response with ELS.

Google partners with mobile network operators, public safety vendors and government agencies responsible for public safety to deploy ELS.

ELS location information is sent only when the user contacts your region’s emergency number. Location is computed locally, and sent directly from the Android device to a partner endpoint. Google does not have access to the emergency location data.

  1. The partner manages the endpoint.

    Each ELS partner is responsible for setting up, configuring and maintaining an ELS endpoint that can receive ELS location information whenever a user contacts an emergency number.

  2. The user initiates an emergency call.

    The user calls or texts a national emergency number using an Android device.

  3. ELS uses FLP to determine the user's location.

    The Android device automatically activates ELS. ELS uses the Fused Location provider (FLP) to fuse location signals from mobile towers, GPS, Wi-Fi and sensors on the phone to compute accurate location data, whether the caller is indoors or outdoors.

  4. Location information is sent to the partner.

    The user’s location is directly sent to emergency services through the partner’s endpoint, per partner-specified configuration (e.g. MCC/MNC). Google does not have access to the emergency location data.

Case study: United Kingdom

ELS can be up to 3000x more accurate than mobile tower triangulation.1

In the UK, a live test found that public safety providers were only able to accurately target within a two mile radius using existing mobile-based location information.

Using ELS, more than half of those same public safety providers were able to report locations within >20 m accuracy.

Partner with us to get ELS in your country.

Frequently asked questions.