AT&T beat nascent rival Dish Wireless to the punch by commencing a nationwide deployment of location-based technology from US company Intrado which the established operator stated vastly improves the accuracy of calls to emergency services.

Intrado’s technology is being employed by AT&T to send emergency 911 calls to the most appropriate centre. The operator stated the set up locates devices before the call is put through and is accurate to within 50 metres, a vast improvement on the ten-mile radius delivered previously through tower-based positioning.

Where AT&T appears to hold the advantage over Dish Wireless is a plan to complete a nationwide rollout of the 911 system by end-June.

Its budding rival signed a deal for the system with Intrado in early 2021 for its 5G network, but remains some way off a national deployment.

AT&T explained 80 per cent of emergency calls today come from mobile devices, heightening the need for an accurate call handling set-up.