Apple Refuses To Enable iPhone Emergency Settings that Could Save Countless Lives (thenextweb.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Despite being relatively easy, Apple keeps ignoring requests to enable a feature called Advanced Mobile Location (AML) in iOS. Enabling AML would give emergency services extremely accurate locations of emergency calls made from iPhones, dramatically decreasing response time. As we have covered before, Google's successful implementation of AML for Android is already saving lives. But where Android users have become safer, iPhone owners have been left behind. The European Emergency Number Association (EENA), the organization behind implementing AML for emergency services, released a statement today that pleads Apple to consider the safety of its customers and participate in the program: "As AML is being deployed in more and more countries, iPhone users are put at a disadvantage compared to Android users in the scenario that matters most: An emergency. EENA calls on Apple to integrate Advanced Mobile Location in their smartphones for the safety of their customers." Why is AML so important? Majority of emergency calls today are made from cellphones, which has made location pinging increasingly more important for emergency services. There are many emergency apps and features in development, but AML's strength is that it doesn't require anything from the user -- no downloads and no forethought: The process is completely automated. With AML, smartphones running supporting operating systems will recognize when emergency calls are being made and turn on GNSS (global navigation satellite system) and Wi-Fi. The phone then automatically sends an SMS to emergency services, detailing the location of the caller. AML is up to 4,000 times more accurate than the current systems -- pinpointing phones down from an entire city to a room in an apartment. "In the past months, EENA has been travelling around Europe to raise awareness of AML in as many countries as possible. All these meetings brought up a recurring question that EENA had to reply to: 'So, what about Apple?'" reads EENA's statement.

Comments

Not surprising...

[irving47]

They are joining you in showing "courage" in braving the wilderness or emergency situation on your own.

Re:Not surprising...

[Darinbob]

I think Apple just assumes every customer turns on GPS because all Apple customers think alike.

Re:Not surprising...

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I'm all for defending privacy, but in a situation where a phone is already being used to call emergency services, giving an exact location is hardly an infringement, is it? You're not just calling them for a friendly chat. You're calling them because something bad happened and someone needs help, as soon as possible, wherever you are right now. Something that reliably tells the ambulance crew where to find a casualty even a single minute faster than describing their location verbally to an operator and having them figure out where you mean is surely going to save lives.

Re:Not surprising...

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

There are scenarios where you'd want to call emergency services but not reveal your location. They might not be very common, but they might still be very important. It's not unheard of for police department to be compromised by assassins. Why not ambulances too?

I'm sure that's a possibility, but unless you got the wrong side of Jason Bourne recently it's probably not something most of us need to worry about when calling for an ambulance.

On the other hand, ambulance services here in the UK deal with more than 100,000 Red 1 calls every year. These are the most urgent kind of medical emergency, things like cardiac arrests or where a casualty has stopped breathing. The target for an emergency vehicle arriving at the scene in these cases is usually 8 minutes, because the casualty's chances of survival drop rapidly if they don't receive that level of care by that time.

If you consider calls to all potentially life-threatening situations, which also typically have an 8 minute target, the figure is more like 50,000-100,000 per day. Although most calls aren't for something as serious as a cardiac arrest, there are many other conditions -- strokes, for example -- where providing care even a little faster can significantly improve a patient's chances of survival or a good recovery.

Not adopting a system that will get significantly faster help to millions of people with potentially life-threatening conditions every year because you're worried about a hit man infiltrating the ambulance service seems like a decision for movie script writers, not people making real world decisions with real lives at stake.

Re:Not surprising...

[Applehu Akbar]

Why not just bring up the "Do you want this app to use your location" in the calling app when it sees an emergency call being dialed? This mode can also be used when the 'emergency call from lock screen' feature is triggered.

Re:Not surprising...

[Cinnamon Beige]

Defending privacy doesn't matter 99% of the time, but if you can't handle the last 1% then people will stop using your service, or they will perish (or get slammed by major hindrances).

There are scenarios where you'd want to call emergency services but not reveal your location. They might not be very common, but they might still be very important. It's not unheard of for police department to be compromised by assassins. Why not ambulances too?

Also there's just a lot of inherent danger in systems that automatically broadcast your location. Maybe Apple isn't satisfied that this one is secure.

All things considered, I'm not really sure how much more secure you could make it if you have it so it only activates when you call the specific EMS number--which ought to be a very easy security feature to implement.

Meanwhile, a lot of possible situations exist that might have you unable to give EMS your location--confusion is a very common result of blood loss and head injuries, for example, or you might be experiencing a condition known as 'being lost.'

Also, generally, if you're worried about the police department being compromised by assassins after you, you are highly unlikely to be calling EMS. You might prompt others to do so, because people with clinical paranoia with weapons are not a fun thing to be around, but you won't be.

Good to see Apple stands for privacy

[Anonymous Coward]

As usual, these CONservatives hate us and want to spy on us.

Re:Good to see Apple stands for privacy

[arth1]

It's not so much about who, but if the feature is enabled to get accurate detection, someone will seek to use it, whether it's law enforcement, political regimes or other.

And quite frankly, it's not like emergency services are going to wait for SMS with location details - that would slow down dispatch for everyone, and cost more lives than it saves.

one side only

[zugmeister]

When you read an article that describes this incredible thing and all the advantages it brings, and how easy / painless it would be to implement, I kinda start to feel like a car salesman is telling me how cheap some car is. I suspect there's more to the story, and quite possibly a good reason Apple's not enabling this service.

Anyone out there have the other half of the story? I'm gonna go get some caffeine.

Re:one side only

[simplypeachy]

I'm sure if there was a good reason Apple refuses to enable it, they'd reply. To someone. To anyone.

Re:one side only

[Baron_Yam]

So far as I know, in Canada and the USA there's already e911, which is a system whereby the cell phone's GPS is turned on, regardless of the user's set preferences, and a GPS fix is sent to the 911 call center by the mobile service provider.

At least in Canada, this was mandated by law for all new phones (because the USA was doing it anyway, and we're effectively a sub-market of the USA so we were getting it anyway). It's also mandated in Canada that the phone companies pass along the e911 data, and that 911 call centers be set up to accept it... though I believe there are/were plenty of delays by both in implementing.

I'm somewhat confused as to whether AML is a different name for e911, or if it's an additional system that uses WiFi maps to enhance location services. I suspect the latter is the case, and Apple already has e911 which is, as far as I know, required by law, and they simply don't want to have to worry about paying Google for a good map of known WAPs. (Because you know Google would be the one that knows every WAP by SID and lat/long)

Re:one side only

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

It's probably the "0118 999 881 999 119 7253 Emergency Number" for the EU. Reading on both e911 and AML, AML sounds far more robust and accurate. SMS often still works when voice and internet service fails due to SMS originally being a "tower control protocol". All the EU needs to do is make it a legal requirement for all cell phones sold in their territory and set a deadline a few years down the road. Apple will comply in the next gen of their phones.

Re:one side only

[jellomizer]

Exactly.
Usually one sided arguments at least try to state reason why the opposing side has its ways (often rather lame, or goes into conspiracy theory), but that is better then just nothing.

Does this open up security concerns? Is this AML a new thing that will probably be put into the next version iPhone 7s and 8? Did Apple ever get the Specs for this? Could this conflict with something else...

Apple tends to have a slower development schedule then Android, and Apple is less likely to release partial implementations.
But stating it is easy, without actually knowing all the details, is rather stupid.

Re:one side only

[93 Escort Wagon]

So far as I know, in Canada and the USA there's already e911, which is a system whereby the cell phone's GPS is turned on, regardless of the user's set preferences, and a GPS fix is sent to the 911 call center by the mobile service provider..

That's not what enhanced 911 does.

Landline phones have a physical address associated with them. Cellphone numbers can have a "master address" linked to them as part of a specific record maintained by each carrier. All enhanced 911 does is provide the originating phone number's associated address (assuming it exists) automatically to the dispatcher. With cell phones, that may not be where the caller is currently located.

Re:one side only

[tlhIngan]

E911 and AML are different.

Basically, what happens is E911 embeds the location information in the control plane when you make a call, so it's the responsibility of the carriers and everyone to forward the data onwards to the emergency center.

AML is completely data and user plane. Basically, if you make an emergency call, your phone turns on GPS and location services (WiFi or other high-precision source). It also turns on data services (even if you have data roaming OFF, or do not have a data plan), and performs an NTP request to get the current date and time. It then takes that information and sends an SMS to emergency services.

E911 requires whole stack integration - mostly to get GPS data to the cellular modem so it can forward it on transparently to the user. AML is completely high level OS based - if you make an emergency call, the OS turns on cellular data and wifi, makes contact with NTP servers to set the local clock, then sends off an SMS.

Basically it's done because in Europe, E911 would be hard to implement because it requires upgrading the entire infrastructure to support it, while AML requires no upgrades since it uses existing infrastructure.

This is probably the reason why Europe has moved towards making roaming basically obsolete - because AML has the possibility for incurring charges on your bill which you cannot control. I mean, it would suck if you got into an emergency and then got hit with extra charges for the data use and the SMS. Especially if you do not have a data or texting plan where the per-use charges can be exorbitant. If you're a tourist, even more so - you witness something, call emergency services and now your phone bill is jacked up without you knowing. At $1/kb or more for per-use data, I'm sure people would be furious about it knowing they did NOT use any data at all except on WiFi. And likely same for SMS as well - foreign texting is expensive, and even more so when it's roaming.

So in the EU, because roaming is basically eliminated, it would get rid of the excess roaming charges from such data use and SMS use - you'd pay your normal rates regardless of where you are. (Of course, it's having issues because people would want to buy plans from cheaper countries since you can use it anywhere).

I would guess that they'd also waive the data charges too during an emergency call, but I won't know. I would also guess it could be subject to hijacking since it's just a normal SMS that is sent and we know of the SMS hijacks available with SS7. So it's possible for a bad actor to trigger the AML code in the OS and then trap the SMS that is sent to get a user's exact location.

Re:one side only

[UnknowingFool]

Well let's start with the actual problem: Apple hasn't implemented it yet. "Enabled" would imply that there's a setting that Apple just doesn't turn on. AML is an open source protocol. It has to be implemented by Apple which Google has done.

Re:one side only

[Attila Dimedici]

They mean. "Trust us, it is a big number. We never bothered to do any research to figure out how many people would be affected, but trust us, it is a lot."

Now Tell Us What You Really Think

[CanHasDIY]

Is it just me, or does this summary seem very one-sided and accusatory?

I'd like to hear Apple's rationale - too often, security is sacrificed in the name of "safety"

Countless

[sexconker]

When someone tells you something is "countless", it usually means they want you to believe it's sufficiently many to accept their argument, but have no evidence to back that up.

How many people would this actually save?
What is the potential for abuse?

Re:Countless

[93 Escort Wagon]

The article listed exactly one life purportedly saved by this tech when a Lithuanian boy called the local equivalent of 911.

But one life obviously scales up to "countless".

However this service is actually only available in "UK, Estonia, Lithuania and parts of Austria" - not the EU as a whole, which seems to be implied by the submission. And, since the tech is owned by Google, we don't know what other requirements may be involved... as I recall, when they were still the official map provider for iOS, they kept lobbying for more access to iPhone owners' location data.

Hippocrites

[jediborg]

Yeah cause we can trust that this advanced location tracking feature won't be abused by governments to spy on its citizens. Its not like apple had to stand up against the intelligence industrial complex of multiple nations and tell them that encryption is part of the right of free speech and they won't submit to weakened encryption, or assist governments in decrypting phones outside of due process and in violations of ones 4th amendment rights.

For non-americans out there: 4th amendment right is your right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Its a right that pre-dates and existed before the United States, is an unalienable right of all humans not just Americans, and if your government doesn't already promise/guarantee such a right in a written and binding document similar to the U.S constitution, you should demand one from your government!

Re:Hippocrites

[jediborg]

Oh man, there is a huge body of philosophical, moral, religious, and political writings about natural rights, their origin and application. Unfortunately its not part of any official school curriculum so when you come across someone well-versed in the subject talking about it... well its like trying to understand concepts of multiplication without understanding addition. Tom Woods recently did an excellent speech introducing the origins of it: http://tomwoods.com/ep-969-whe... unfortunately he doesn't have any links on that page to written work on the subject. I have read some EXCELLENT primers on the topic, but of course can't remember/find any of them right now. So now I am in the unenviable position of trying to explain the topic (as an armchair philosopher) in a few sentences to someone on the internet, hoping to word it in such a way that it doesn't seem ridiculous.

It starts of with a basic proposition, that all humans own their own bodies. That is to say, a rational adult has exclusive control over their own bodies. Even in tribal pre-historical society, if I tried to come up to you and cut your organs out for an experiment, the other tribemembers would have some serious problems with this. You at LEAST need the person's permission before carving them up. This basic moral reasoning, that you can't just go around chopping up other people, seems to be a moral universal standard. (Yes I know, barbarians, solders and war and all that, but its usually two tribes in conflict, we are focusing on behavior amongst tribe members in a somewhat civilized society) From this moral universal standard that people own their own bodies, and therefore have exclusive control over it (deciding to get it pierced or tattooed or not, deciding to donate an organ, etc.) from that one basic principle, you can also (in a perfectly logical, rational way) derive property rights, from which all other 'natural rights' come from. Its not that lighting will strike you if you murder another person or anything, its that it is a biological reality that only I can control the movements of my arms, the speech coming from my mouth, and the people I choose to associate with. Attempting to prevent a person from moving their body, generating certain sounds from their mouth, or associating with certain people can be considered universally morally wrong, because it violates the basic universal moral standard (and biological reality) that people own/control their own bodies, and shouldn't be stopped from doing so unless it is harming another person in some way.

please listen to the podcast i linked to, as it goes into more depth in the subject and is more eloquent than my writing. Its also worth noting that John Locke is considered the 'breakthrough writer' who took what people had been discussing regarding 'natural rights' for several centuries, and put it together into a comprehensive philosophy. This philosophy greatly influenced the American Revolution and the thinking of our first 4 presidents, who enshrined these concepts in American Law. Read any of John Locks books today, still a great read, and may not seem revolutionary today, but remember he published his books anonymously because his head would have been chopped off by monarchs if he didn't. His writing was LITERALLY revolutionary, as it inspired revolution amongst the colonies, and influenced western law in several countries for two centuries and counting.

Problem with emergency calls from Android

[Nexus7]

The other day I go to report a dangerous situation on the road to 911, the call goes through, then I go to turn the speakerphone on, since it is loud on the street, and.. well, I can't, 'cos there's this big bar across all that with a busy indicator, but eventually it gets my location and shows me a picture of where I am. So they crippled the phone app to let me know where I am?

Re:Problem with emergency calls from Android

[Anonymous Coward]

If it's noisy then speakerphone isn't going to help you. You'll still struggle to hear it, and the operator won't be able to hear anything but the street. It's better to be closer to the mic and speaker off speakerphone and cover your other ear.

Re:Apple will bow to pressure.

[spire3661]

ITs called 'Lib-er-ty' Specifically i should have the option of NOT providing my location constantly. Any smartphone that doesnt offer root by default should be banned outright, no exceptions. See i can spout unrealistic absolutes too.

Re:Dubious

[Rick Schumann]

Or slightly less dystopian than that, but not by much. Imagine this:

You get your car insurance bill. The premium went up a sizeable amount for no apparent reason. You call them up and ask why, since you have no tickets or accidents. They tell you "You're at risk for driving under the influence so we had to raise your rates". You ask them, how they came to that conclusion? "We see you go to such-and-such bar two or three times a week." How the hell do you know that? "it's from the GPS data on your smartphone"

Re:OnePlus

[Swave An deBwoner]

My Motorola W755 went into low battery failure mode when I call 911. I suspect it's due to a problem with enabling GPS on emergency calls. I was able to call back and complete the call though using an unactivated (wifi only) smartphone that I had gotten free after rebate :-)

Re:Now Tell Us What You Really securing?

[PPH]

What are people trying to secure?

Their location and identity in the event they are trying to report an incident anonymously.

they do?

[Maury Markowitz]

>Apple Refuses

So "no comment" now means "you refuse"? I think the civil liberties people would have a problem with that statement.

>Could Save Countless Lives

Given that it exists on Android, it seems extremely countable to me.

Another story with "Apple" in the title for teh clix.

Re:No.

[muecksteiner]

Ahahaha... OSI :)

I remember that crap. Basically, this was the brainchild of a bunch of second-rate CS professors, who tried to do better than TCP/IP by adding several layers of obtuse complications on top of the network layer. One of these professors was a teacher at the uni I studied, many years ago. He forced everyone to buy his book on the topic. After the course was done, I never heard of the thing again, of course, until now. Not so happy memories (the course was lethally boring), but at least memories. Of 25 years ago. :)

Re:No, Apple wouldn't

[rkhalloran]

In Asian markets (i.e. China) they have to provide the Micro-USB adapter plug gratis in order to sell the phones. In the glorious free-market USA, Apple gets to screw you over for an extra $xx for it and/or charge you extra for Lightning cables instead of the USB cables the other 90% of the market uses.

Re:Now Tell Us What You Really securing?

[Carewolf]

What are people trying to secure?

Their location and identity in the event they are trying to report an incident anonymously.

Probably shouldn't be using a cellphone then. That data is always available, the question is if it is available to the emergency service right away or have to be gotten through a warrent from your provider.

Re:Apple will bow to pressure.

[Carewolf]

ITs called 'Lib-er-ty'

Specifically i should have the option of NOT providing my location constantly. Any smartphone that doesnt offer root by default should be banned outright, no exceptions. See i can spout unrealistic absolutes too.

Well, good because that is exactly what AML is NOT doing.... Fantastic, you can have everything you want and still be saved from a heart attack.

Re:It'll be in the next iphone

[Black.Shuck]

Remember, apple isn't a technology company, they're a luxury brand marketing company.

How does tripe like this get modded "Insightful"?

Apple make good things. Apple are good at marketing those things. One does not preclude the other, you know. It's entirely possible to make good things and be able to have a team of people devise a really good marketing strategy for them too.

You can even have those people in the same building at the same time, if you like. It's amazing, but you can have different "departments" within the same campus, with teams of people taking care of different parts of the business.

But I guess this doesn't satisfy our outlet for tribalism when it comes to technology. Or sports teams. Or car brands. Or your favourite fucking brand of socks.

Because it's not necessary

[nehumanuscrede]

Well, this got me asking myself the question " Just how accurate is wireless GPS data that is fed to the 911 systems ? "

Well, I can answer that actually since I can watch that data in real time as it traverses the 911 network.

That said, the GPS appears to report data that is accurate out to six decimal places.
A random one a few moments ago near the Chicago area came across as: +40.769997 -87.739716

My understanding is six digits out gives us an accuracy of .1 meter ( or about four inches for us non-metric types ) but this degrades a bit the further away from the equator you go.

Still, FOUR INCHES ? If you can't find the damn caller within four inches, then you have a much bigger problem. Even with degradation, it should easily be within a couple of meters of the stated location. One of you super math types can probably calculate the deviation if you feel like it.

I understand the need for emergency services to have accurate information, but damn.

How much more accurate do you need it to be ?

Re:Because it's not necessary

[JohnFen]

You may be confusing precision (the number of decimal places) with accuracy (how well that number corresponds with reality).

Those are two different things and a high degree of precision does not imply a high degree of accuracy.

If it can be abused, it will be abused.

[Sqreater]

Law enforcement and government will find a way to turn it on "for the public good." Sometimes you just have to stubbornly say no in order to protect rights, freedom, and privacy. Rights cost, not just on the battlefields of our nation's wars, but in our daily lives. Sad, but very true.

Re:If it can be abused, it will be abused.

[thegarbz]

What is wrong in your country that you live in such a perpetual state of fear.

Re:If it can be abused, it will be abused.

[Lucky_Strikez]

We don't, they just portray it that way. Then everybody believes it and it becomes a thing that people talk about. I live in the country and there ain't shit going on outside. But I work in the city and there ain't nothing going on there either. The only people that live in fear are the ones that already would for any reason. Everyone I work with just lives their life day to day, no fear. Most of them have plenty of guns and ammo too. I've lived in Ohio, Florida and work in Indiana and I can tell you it seems like 80% of the people I interact with have guns, like to talk about them and are more than ready if they needed to use them. The rest are soccer moms.

Re:If it can be abused, it will be abused.

[dwye]

Our government is filled with morally and/or ethically fallible humans.

Maybe yours is controlled by angels, although according to The Book Of Enoch 1/9th of all angels revolted and became/invented evil, so even there, a bit of wariness might be wise.

Re:Dubious

[Noryungi]

Unless there is absolutely no way to trigger AML remotely, I'm not sure I'd trust this system either.

I'll grant you that. It could be tricky to put together well.

On the other hand, if you are that concerned with your privacy, do a Richard Stallman, and refuse to have a cell phone at all: he has said several times he considered them are nothing more than advanced tools for the intelligence community. Plus, of course, closed-source software, etc.

To be honest, I recently bought a very specific smartphone precisely for that reason: it was one of the rare model that still offered a removable battery, so who am I to criticize?

Re:In Europe?

[alvinrod]

I'm not particularly worried. Usually you only really need to worry when both sides are getting in on it as then you know its a real screw-job. I'll make sure to keep an eye out for arguments about the safety of terrorists. Then we'll know we're in trouble.

Re:OnePlus

[bhcompy]

Based on OnePlus' public statement regarding the matter, this would appear to be true, and it's a specific Qualcomm driver that was the problem

Hyperbolic much?

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Countless? Really? how hard is it to count the number of people who called Emergency services but later lost their lives because of incomplete location data. Yes, any number more than zero is bad, but don't make Apple out to be Vlad the Impaler or Pol Pot here.

Re:It'll be in the next iphone

[JohnFen]

There are android phones out there that are, (don't get value-judgment on imperfect, its a neutral term here) imperfect substitutes for iPhones.

Sure. And there are Android phones out there that are superior to iPhones, too.

And rightly so!

[goranb]

"AML automatically turns on mobile data on the headset (which may lead to charges to the user), automatically contacts NTP servers and sets date, and sends IMSI/IMEI over unencrypted (but invisible to the user) SMS message."
    -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

emergency services do *not* need my IMSI / IMEI, they have my phone number (both from the call, as well as the SMS)...
and that's even without going into the fact that this is sent in an SMS (the user will never know about), so security isn't even a word you can use in a debate about this.

we, developers, don't get access to the IMEI on iOS, it's against security policies (and rightly so), so I suspect this is part of the reason why Apple isn't replying to requests (which isn't the same thing as "refusing"!).

I'd rather have a secure phone, thank you very much... the benefits of this system do not outweigh the risks, it's not even close

Re:It'll be in the next iphone

[Bing Tsher E]

"Apple makes things equivalent in quality to the rest of the marketplace. Apple works hard to differentiate by making little features and warts that make their product incompatible with the rest of the marketplace."

Apple is good at marketing those things.

One does not preclude the other, you know.

Re:No.

[slashrio]

Have you ever checked out the difference between 'American Standard' electrical power plugs and the European ones?
Those really are superior.
Just an example.

Re:It'll be in the next iphone

[JohnFen]

Personally, running on hardware of equal power, I find Android to be superior to iPhone (as long as it's not one of those modified Android versions that the carriers crank out). But the reality is that both operating systems are roughly equally capable, so which one a person prefers is more a matter of taste than of some sort of objective superiority.

Not a right in many EU country

[aepervius]

In many EU country not only you HAVE to legally report any incident , but you are under the threat of a prison sentence if you don't assist (e.g. unterlassene Hilfeleistung (failure to provide assistance) is a crime under section 323(c)). You have no right to report incident anonymously, in fact you have a duty to stay until the rescuer are here to take over, you have a duty to give possible help you are able to (as far as you are able). There are similar laws in some other EU countries (not all mind you). Pretty much why a few month ago when there was some old guy lying down in blood, and a pair of adult was a bit non plussed as what to do, I *had* to stop and help, help make the person warm, try to check if they had brain problem , etc... Until the ambulance came. Now I would have stopped , the law be there or not, because I see it as the moral thing to do. But even if I did not have that view, I was legally obligated.

Re:Apple will bow to pressure.

[Grishnakh]

Apple got around it by having to provide a free dongle with every iPhone that converts microUSB to Lightning.

Presumably, Android phones could do the exact same thing. They just don't bother, because it's cheaper and easier to just build microUSB into the phone directly. Only Apple insists on having its own stupid port, as their legions of kool-aid drinking customers are happy to pay them $$$ for overpriced cables; this just doesn't work with the Android sellers.

Re:OnePlus

[scdeimos]

Links for reference:

• [IMPORTANT] Emergency Call Issue Resolved – What we learned.
• Here's why some OnePlus 5s rebooted when calling 911, and how OnePlus fixed it

Not needed in the US.

[Jason Pollock]

In the US and Canada, they've required the implementation of mobile E911 phase 2. It requires the location of the device within 300m (max) within 6minutes of the location being asked for.

This is done both in the network (triangulation/timing) and with the cooperation of the chipset in the device, which already reports the location. AT&T already uses the GPS chips in the device - the phone's chipset grabs the data.

So, there is no reason to ask for the location from the device manufacturer if the location is already being provided by the network.

That the EU can't get their rules passed and in force (since 2003) [1] is their own problem. The technology is there, available and has been for over a decade.

[1] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal...