How it works

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.

Benefits

Since its launch, the ECLI Service has delivered on the Government’s requirement to provide emergency service providers with the best available mobile caller location when a person dials 111 on their mobile phone.

The service has helped emergency service providers locate emergency callers in numerous situations, including vehicle accidents, house and rural fires, people lost while tramping, medical events and where a caller is unable to communicate with the call taker or it is challenging to do so, which could be for multiple reasons.

Prior to the ECLI Service, where people couldn’t give an accurate address, emergency services experienced difficulty pinpointing a caller’s exact location and in some cases were required to make a special information request to a network provider for a caller’s location which took additional time. These requests have reduced as a result of the introduction of the ECLI Service.

Each year, there are more than 2 million calls to emergency services with 84 per cent of those being made from a mobile phone.

The ECLI Service supports 111 TXT

The ECLI Service also 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.

Accuracy 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.

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