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T-Mobile's two big new breakthroughs are aimed at saving lives rather than money

Published: Dec 17, 2020, 3:39 PM

Adrian Diaconescu

T-Mobile's two big new breakthroughs are aimed at saving lives rather than money

It looks like T-Mobile is finally taking a little break from its tireless 5G network-improving, Verizon-mocking, and subscriber base-boosting efforts of the last few months, unveiling not one but two different innovations aimed at saving lives (as opposed to money for a change).

That may sound pompous or hyperbolic, but we can probably all agree that the "Un-carrier" is right in deeming "every second" as vital in emergency situations. Thus, Magenta's Location-Based Routing (LBR) technology could well prove a literal lifesaver for some people, allowing the network to connect more 911 callers "directly to the appropriate 911 call center."

That means the need for call transfers can be significantly reduced, "saving precious time" and ensuring emergency responders can locate and reach those in trouble more quickly... in "parts of Texas and Washington State." That's not exactly an impressive start, but of course, T-Mobile is closely "working with 911 authorities to expand the capability nationwide", leveraging something called low latency device-based location technology.

As the name suggests, Next Generation 911 might be an even bigger deal, and not just because T-Mo has already managed to establish "some level" of this groundbreaking technology in "all or part of Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington State."

The reason this is such a massive game changer is that the technology aims to "bring emergency communications into the future", transitioning 911 services to a state-of-the-art all-IP-based system. It's hard to underline just how important T-Mobile considers these capabilities to be for the future of emergency communications, with everything from call overload to natural disaster response and interoperability between jurisdictions expected to be vastly improved as a direct consequence.

Obviously, the long-term plan is to expand all this stuff across the nation, and knowing T-Mo, the second-largest wireless service provider in the US would probably like to do that before Verizon and AT&T even manage to unveil their competing next-gen 911 systems.