Mobile carriers will need to provide mobile phone location information to police, fire brigade or ambulance services if the caller is unable to verbally communicate their location in an emergency phone call.

“Locating callers quickly and with confidence is clearly a crucial element of the Triple Zero emergency call service. The ACMA’s new rules enable emergency service organisations to access the most precise location information that is currently available on the mobile networks and also to automatically capture the benefits from any future developments in location-based services offered by the mobile carriers,” said Acting ACMA Chairman, Mr. Richard Bean.

According to ACMA, 63% of calls made to 000 are from a mobile phone. While most of the time the caller is able to provide the listener with location details, in less than 1% of cases the caller is too distressed or does not know the address of where they are located.

Mobile carriers will have until 20 April 2011 to trial new systems which will be used to effectively provide the location details to emergency organisations.

While ACMA has said this is a move toward providing a faster and more efficient service in emergency situations, they have advised Australians not to assume they can always automatically be located when calling from a mobile phone, particularly outside population centres.