- RapidSOS announces its collaboration with Google in Mexico
- RapidSOS’s emergency response data platform brings life-saving data, including location and additional emergency data, to first responders
- Google’s Android Emergency Location Service (ELS) provides faster and more accurate location information to emergency responders and has saved countless lives around the world
Mexico City, December 01, 2020 – With COVID-19 putting immense strain on Mexico’s emergency services, RapidSOS and Google announced today a collaboration to deliver life-saving Android ELS 911 caller location data to public safety agencies across the country.
Despite the advancement of technology in our lives during the past 50 years, most emergency calls continue to involve no more than a voice connection and a broad estimate of the caller’s location. This can cause delays and make a quick response challenging – especially if the caller cannot speak or does not know their location.
Android Emergency Location Service (ELS), which is supported on 99 percent of Android devices, transmits faster and more accurate emergency location both indoors and outdoors by fusing Wi-Fi, GPS, cell tower data, and other sources. ELS location is now available for free to all official emergency communications centers in Mexico through the RapidSOS emergency response data platform. This is an expansion of an already successful partnership arrangement between the companies in the United States.
Beyond accurate location information from Google, RapidSOS also supports sharing additional emergency details such as health and medical, security, and telematics data to increase the amount of data first responders can obtain during a call. The RapidSOS platform was designed following extensive conversations with more than 5,200 first responders and leading industry leaders, including Mexico’s NENA and CALEA.
“911 dispatchers and first responders do incredible work every day with limited resources, and COVID-19 is straining the systems further,” said Guillermo Del Rio, Mexico Vice President at RapidSOS. “We are honored to provide more resources for those on the frontlines to help respond to this unprecedented situation. Now more than ever, it is vital that 911 can receive critical location information automatically to help reduce response times and keep the service running at optimal levels.”
Manuel Haces, Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager for Google Mexico, said, “We appreciate being able to continue our efforts to offer ELS in Mexico, now working with RapidSOS, in order to improve location accuracy and provide life-saving emergency data to public safety agencies in Mexico.
According to Edy Garcia, Director of Services at the Nuevo León C5 Center: “We received a call from a citizen who was being kidnapped and could only tell us that they were in the Apodaca town area. RapidSOS provided us with [Android ELS] information and with that data, our unit was able to locate and save the caller.”
According to Manuel Villarreal, Director of the Guanajuato C5 Center, “[Android ELS location through RapidSOS] has helped us during multiple car chase cases, thanks to its automatic updates in our map as the caller moves. It has also helped us with locating the many callers that do not know their location, especially tourists who do not live in the area.”
Over the coming months, RapidSOS will be exploring further ways for its platform to integrate with other Mexican companies in sectors such as automotive, security, healthcare, apps, and wearables.
About RapidSOS
In partnership with public safety, RapidSOS has created the world’s first emergency response data platform that securely links life-saving data from 400M+ connected devices directly to emergency and services and first responders. Through the platform, RapidSOS provides intelligent data that supports over 5,200 Emergency Communications Centers worldwide, across 250 million emergencies annually. Together with innovative companies certified as RapidSOS Ready, RapidSOS is supporting first responders in saving millions of lives annually.
To learn more about our technology that’s protecting lives, https://rapidsos.com/latin-america/
About Google
Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Google’s innovations in web search and advertising have made its website a top Internet property and its brand one of the most recognized in the world. Google is a trademark of Google LLC. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.