Location-based services have been a hot topic for several years, fueled by the FCC E911 mandate. E911 is a shorthand reference to the U.S. government-mandated decision requiring U.S.-based wireless carriers to provide location information to emergency response services for customers who dial 911 on their mobile phones. The cost of complying with E911 for each wireless carrier in the United States, depending on their network size, coverage and the location solution they chose, could range from the hundreds of millions of dollars to as much as a billion dollars. According to the National Emergency Number Association, today only 1 percent of counties in the United States are able to receive Phase Ⅱ location information, the most precise form of location data for wireless phones. Yet NENA notes that currently more than 30 percent of 911 calls come from mobile phones. In the near future, the percentage volume of calls to 911 from mobile phones is expected to surpass that from wireline phones.
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