Emer­gen­cy calls

Under national and European legislation, service providers and network operators are obliged to offer basic functions for emergency calls:

• Using the single European short number 112 or the national short number 110, anyone needing help should be able to quickly reach the correct local emergency centre free of charge.
• Caller location information in electronic communication networks should be provided to the emergency centres, taking into account data protection requirements.

The requirements for telecommunication services and the relevant infrastructure concerning emergency calls are defined by the EU Expert Group on Emergency Access (EGEA). ETSI Special Committee Emergency Telecommunication (EMTEL) is responsible for coordinating standardisation at European level.

The standards for fixed and mobile networks are developed at international level by the European Standardisation Organisation ETSI and the "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP), generally also taking account of the regulatory requirements contained in the specifications.

The "Internet Engineering Task Force" (IETF) develops the specifications for the Internet (RFCs). Two working groups of the IETF develop specifications which are particularly important for handling emergency calls for connections based on the Internet protocol (IP):

• Emergency Context Resolution with Internet Technologies (ecrit)
• Geographic Location/Privacy (geopriv)

The European Commission may introduce specific standardisation initiatives, issuing mandates (assignments) to the European Standardisation Organisations, with the aim of providing standards on a timely basis and in line with market requirements, in particular when it comes to socially important services. On 6 May 2011 the European Commission issued a "standardisation mandate to the European Standardisation Organisations in support of the location enhanced emergency call service" (M/493 EN).

International standards have been transposed into national legislation for emergency calls by the Technical Directive for Emergency Calls (TR Emergency Call).