Emergency Caller Location Information Service
For emergency services only
Helping to locate people who call emergency services.
- Service
- Location Information Services
- Delivered by
- SafetyNet
Overview
Locating 111 callers faster and more accurately
When you dial 111 from a mobile device on a cellular network, emergency call takers from Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Hato Hone St John, New Zealand Police and Wellington Free Ambulance receive automatically generated geographical information about your likely location through the Emergency Caller Location Information Service (ECLI) to assist in their response.
The ECLI Service saves lives by decreasing the time taken to verify location and reduces the average dispatch time to incidents, with controls in place to protect callers’ personal information.
-
2m+
111 calls made per year
-
84%
of 111 calls are by mobile phone
-
85%
of genuine 111 calls used high precision location technology
How it works
How Emergency Caller Location Information supports emergency response
Infographic
Infographic showing how the Emergency Caller Location Information system works [PDF, 1.5 MB]
Privacy & requesting information
How your information and privacy is protected
When you call 111, Emergency Caller Location Information will only be collected and used to:
- help emergency service providers identify the location of callers to 111 to assist with their response,
- allow emergency service providers to maintain records of the information used to establish the location of an emergency and to help us monitor and audit the system.
Location data is only held to facilitate these two purposes, after which it is automatically deleted. While location information is held, it is stored in secure datacentres and access is tightly restricted to use by people who use it for the purposes identified in Schedule 4 of the Telecommunications Information Privacy Code.
Read the privacy statement here
The ECLI Service supports 111 TXT
The ECLI Service supports location data sent by a registered 111 TXT user, texting 111 on Android or iOS devices. The 111 TXT service(external link) is for people who are deaf, hearing or speech-impaired.
Devices that are capable of using the Starlink satellite service and are registered for 111 TXT, are also supported.
Location positioning
Accurancy of the ECLI Service
The level of location accuracy is dependent on the method used to perform the location position calculation. The ECLI Service currently supports the following location positioning methods:
Handset-based positioning
This is a standards-based location solution using handset-based location positioning on supported Android and iOS smartphones (via the mobile network operators).
Location data is provided by Google’s Android Emergency Location service and Apple’s Hybridised Emergency Location (HELO) for iOS, which use GPS, Wi-Fi or cell-site information to define the location of the handset. If a device is able to connect to GNSS satellite constellations (such as the GPS), the location information can be as accurate as two metres. Wi-Fi location information can be as accurate as 15 metres.
Network-based positioning
For network-based locations, the accuracy of a location measurement is dependent on the supported capabilities of the mobile phone. Similar to handset-based positioning, the network-based method can also calculate a precise location if the mobile phone supports GNSS satellite (GPS) positioning. The network-based solution may also use less precise network positioning methods such as timings and power measurements and in some scenarios, where network measurements are not available, coarse location information such as cell site may be the only location information provided.
For all network-based location methods, the accuracy of this location information depends on whether the caller is in an urban, suburban or rural area.