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 Historically, satellite and other technologies have helped
emergency responders find people who called from outdoors, while
landlines commonly automatically provided dispatchers with an
address. Cellphone calls from indoors, however, have been tougher to
locate because walls weaken signals.
Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc, Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US
have reached a deal with public-safety groups to get specific
location data to 911 dispatchers for 40 percent of wireless 911
calls within two years and 80 percent within six years.
The wireless association CTIA announced the agreement with the
Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials and the
National Emergency Number Association on Friday.
 The deal marks a milestone in the long-running effort to help
first-responders get to emergencies quickly as people increasingly
rely on cellphones for 911 calls and to improve their ability to
locate emergencies in places such as schools, shopping malls and
hotels.
The Federal Communications Commission has long required data from
wireless 911 calls to include location information based on outdoor
technologies. But technology has been insufficient to direct
responders to specific floors, rooms or particular areas of a
building.
The FCC earlier this year challenged the wireless industry to help
responders locate emergencies indoors, within 50 meters horizontally
and 3 meters vertically, estimating it could save more than 10,000
lives every year.
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The "heightened location accuracy," available to supporting networks
and handsets, will find callers through nearby devices connected to
Wi-Fi or Bluetooth that will be logged with a specific location in a
special emergency-services database.
For instance, a smoke detector or a Wi-Fi router with an attached
address could serve as a beacon, an industry expert close to the
deal said.
Over time, the wireless carriers plan to ensure each handset can
turn on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity in emergency-call instances,
if it is disabled.
The FCC had proposed the rollout timeframe of two years for 67
percent of cellphone calls and five years for 80 percent, though the
companies and public safety groups reached a slightly different
consensus.
(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by Ken Wills)
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