Photo: Describing your location on road trips, especially in unfamiliar surrounds, can be challenging. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin) Photo: Describing your location on road trips, especially in unfamiliar surrounds, can be challenging. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin)

Mobile phone-tracking technology coming soon to Australia

... to show location of triple-0 callers

Ed Cottam began dialling triple-0 as he stopped to help a motorcyclist lying on the road, but his quick thinking turned into a 15-minute struggle to explain where he was.

Key points:

  • The inability of emergency operators to pinpoint a mobile phone caller's location can cause delays in dispatching first responders
  • The rollout of automatic mobile location (AML) technology is expected to improve the way the triple-0 service can manage emergencies
  • Telstra will make the information available from June after agreement from phone giants Apple and Android

The retired South Australian school teacher was returning home with his wife after holidaying in Victoria when they made the discovery.

"We weren't in a hurry to get back to the Riverland, so we told the GPS we were happy to use the backroads, so we were wandering through the backblocks of Victoria heading toward Casterton," he said.

"We came over the crest of a hill … there was a man lying in the middle of the road.

"I could see the motorcycle smashed into the foliage by the side of the road. I jumped out of the car, dialling triple-0 as I went."

But as Mr Cottam used his first-aid training to help the injured rider, he was also having to help the emergency operator locate him.

"I explained that my GPS said I was 13 kilometres south of Casterton, but she wanted me to find a side road and its name, but in the middle of the forest, side roads are few and far between."

Mr Cottam said he was shocked to learn that despite believing mobile phones could be easily tracked, emergency call operators could not access that information.

"For me, the ability to ping the phone would have been the answer; all they would have had to do is ping, 'Ah, I see where you are, and here comes the ambulance'."

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By Catherine Heuzenroeder
(Source: abc.net.au; February 27, 2020; https://is.gd/8pZ7nf)
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