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A cyclist dials the emergency number on the way. He is surprised that the headquarters does not automatically see his location.
It happened in September on a bike tour from Jona SG to Wil SG. A cyclist collapses on the way and his colleague activates the automatic emergency call function on his smartphone.
First he ends up at the emergency call center of the canton of Thurgau. This forwards him to the St. Gallen headquarters. But this cannot locate the cyclist. He has to determine and communicate his location on a map app. He meant that in Switzerland you are now automatically located when you make an emergency call with your cell phone.
The St. Gallen emergency call center has now been converted
In fact, emergency call centers in Switzerland have been converting to the so-called Advanced Mobile Location (AML) since summer 2022. However, the cantons have until the end of 2023 to do this.
And Pascal Häderli, media spokesman for the St. Gallen cantonal police, confirmed in the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso”: “We had to wait for a software update, which we were able to install on October 25th. Since then, precise location identification has been possible for all emergency numbers that the St. Gallen headquarters can receive.” These are the numbers 112, 117, 118 and 144. If the two cyclists’ emergency had happened a month later, the control center would have been able to locate the caller.
And why did the emergency call from the canton of St. Gallen reach the Thurgau headquarters? This can happen in the border area of two cantons. It has to do with the fact that the cell phone signal is usually picked up by the nearest provider antenna, regardless of the canton.
However, rerouting from an emergency call center to one in the neighboring canton is not a problem for AML. According to the Federal Office of Communications (Bakom), the data is transmitted to a central national receiving point, where it can be accessed by the emergency call centers.
Location is sent even when location services are blocked
AML works on all newer smartphones (Android from version 4, iPhones from iOS 13.3), only old cell phones are not yet AML-capable. What’s special about this system: The smartphone automatically sends location data in the event of an emergency call, even if the owner has blocked the location services: “The location report is automatic and does not have to be activated in advance by the user,” writes Bakom .
It goes on to say that the comprehensive implementation of AML is on track. The system should be operational throughout Switzerland at the end of 2024. However, there may be cases where the location cannot be technically determined or transferred. The delivery chain from the smartphone to the emergency call centers is complex, writes Bakom. Depending on the network configuration and available networks, the devices would behave differently.