FAC wants to help identify the floor of a 911 call comes from

Wireless service providers are already obligated to provide 911 call centers with a "distributable location", such as an address or apartment number. With the new rules, these companies should also provide location information on the z axis, showing the verticality of a caller. The accuracy should be plus or minus three meters from the caller to allow first responders to determine which floor they will need to go to. The additional location metric should help when a 911 call comes from someone in an apartment, hotel or other tiered facility.

The proposal marks the latest effort by the FCC to modernize emergency response systems. Over the past decade, the agency has approved a dedicated LTE network accessible to first responders throughout the United States, which is operated by AT & T and which was eventually adopted by the 50 US states in 2017. The FCC has also approved explored allowing for multimedia and on-going communications with emergency responders.