GATINEAU — The CRTC today announced it has approved recommendations made in a report submitted in October 2020 by the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee’s (CISC) Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG), which now requires facilities-based wireless service providers to take steps to implement handset-based location technology in Canada by March 1, 2022.
With approximately 80% of 9-1-1 calls now being made on wireless devices, according to the Commission, wireless location information is critical when providing assistance to callers in emergency situations.
Advanced mobile location (AML) is a handset-based location protocol which can be used to find caller location for 9-1-1 calls made from smartphones using either an Android or iPhone operating system, which accounts for the vast majority of smartphones in Canada. The AML protocol uses technology from either Google’s Emergency Location Service (ELS) for Android devices, or Apple’s Hybridized Emergency Location (HELO) for iOS devices, to determine the location of a smartphone.
In its report (which can be found here), the ESWG described two proof-of-concept trials undertaken by Telus Communications and Bell Canada for ELS and HELO, respectively.
The ESWG’s recommendations (which the Commission has now approved) require all facilities-based wireless service providers to enter into agreements with Google and Apple to formally enable the necessary Canadian ELS and HELO configurations, respectively, by October 1, 2021. (The required configuration steps for each technology are outlined in the Commission’s decision here.)
Then, by March 1, 2022, the wireless service providers are required to activate the Canadian ELS and HELO software load to complete their implementation of each technology (again, the required tasks involved are set out in the Commission’s decision).
The ESWG itself has some additional work to do, which includes undertaking an assessment, starting on or before October 1 and reporting the results to the Commission no later than March 1, 2022, of action items identified in the report as necessary for the implementation of handset-based location technology in Canada.
Some of these items include:
- working with wireless service providers to confirm how HTTPS will be allowed from handsets without a data plan;
- working with service providers to determine if Data SMS is required in addition to HTTPS for the delivery of ELS location results;
- working with service providers to determine if the ELS and HELO configurations, validation processes and location result calculations perform as expected, subject to an agreed-upon test plan;
- working with Google to confirm a single aggregation implementation for Canada that sends the ELS location data simultaneously to each of the designated NG9-1-1 network providers;
- confirm the process and interconnection required to push the ELS location results delivered from Google to the applicable wireless service provider; and
- determine if additional processing is required to handle multi-operator core network arrangements between two wireless service providers.
In addition, the ESWG must complete the following steps to implement a new wireless location query tool proposed for basic 9-1-1 (B9-1-1) public safety answering points (PSAPs) in Canada (B9-1-1 service does not provide location information, unlike enhanced 9-1-1 or E9-1-1):
- work with Apple to facilitate delivery of HELO location data to NG9-1-1 network provider aggregation points;
- confirm the interconnection requirements between a B9-1-1 PSAP and the serving NG9-1-1 network provider;
- develop the query tool to be used as detailed in section 5.3 of the ESWG’s report; and
- conduct a proof-of-concept trial starting on or before October 1, 2021, to be completed by December 15, 2021, to confirm the proposed query tool can be implemented.
