KCC: "Location Information Quality of the Three Major Telecom Operators Has Improved"

In a quality survey of personal location information used for emergency rescue by police and fire services, all three mobile carriers showed improvements in emergency rescue location standard compliance rate, location accuracy, and location response time.

The Korea Communications Commission announced the results of the "2022 Emergency Rescue Location Information Quality Measurement" on the 17th.

This measurement was conducted from August to November last year, targeting the quality of location information by positioning technologies (base station, GPS, Wi-Fi) used for providing emergency rescue location information on devices used by the three mobile carriers.

It examined how quickly and accurately location information is provided when the GPS and Wi-Fi functions of the device are temporarily turned on during an emergency situation while they are initially turned off.

The measurement results showed that the emergency rescue location standard compliance rate for devices of the three carriers improved from 86.5% in 2021 to 98.2% in 2022 for the GPS method, and from 86.6% to 93.8% for the Wi-Fi method during the same period.

Location accuracy also improved: GPS from 53.8m to 31.6m, Wi-Fi from 56.1m to 34.2m, and base station from 146.3m to 107m. Response times improved as well: GPS from 12.4 seconds to 5.8 seconds, Wi-Fi from 7.5 seconds to 4.1 seconds, and base station from 4.9 seconds to 3.2 seconds.

By carrier, the GPS method location standard compliance rates were KT 99%, LGU+ 98%, and SKT 97.6%. Location accuracy was KT 12.7m, LGU+ 20.2m, and SKT 29.4m. Response times were KT 4.3 seconds, LGU+ 6.2 seconds, and SKT 6.7 seconds, all showing good performance across the three carriers.

For the Wi-Fi method, location standard compliance rates were KT 95.3%, SKT 94.9%, and LGU+ 91.1%. Location accuracy was KT 25.2m, LGU+ 35.5m, and SKT 37m. Response times were SKT 2.1 seconds, KT 4.9 seconds, and LGU+ 5.3 seconds, also indicating good performance for all three carriers.

For the base station method, location accuracy was KT 72.7m, SKT 86m, and LGU+ 338.4m. Location response times were SKT 1.6 seconds, KT 3.4 seconds, and LGU+ 4.5 seconds. While SKT and KT showed good results, LGU+ was found to need improvement in location accuracy.

The Korea Communications Commission also explained that, based on measurements of some devices other than those sold at the three carriers’ agencies and stores among devices released domestically last year, self-supplied devices were found to provide location information via base station, GPS, and Wi-Fi.

Although USIM-moved devices and budget phone devices also showed improvements compared to the previous year, many foreign-made devices often do not provide GPS and Wi-Fi location information, raising concerns about difficulties during emergency rescues.

The Commission plans to promote the post-installation of positioning functions on devices without such features through consultations within the "Emergency Rescue Quality Council," which consists of mobile carriers, manufacturers, and operating system providers such as Apple and Google.

They also plan to implement the emergency rescue precise positioning standard technology developed by the Ministry of Science and ICT together with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute and the Korea Information and Communications Technology Association.

Furthermore, for iPhones, which make up most foreign devices, the Commission will consult with Apple to recommend providing location information even when not on an emergency call and to equip Wi-Fi positioning functions compatible with carrier networks.

Han Sang-hyuk, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, stated, "To protect the lives of citizens in various disasters and emergency rescue situations, we will continue to promote improvements in the quality of emergency rescue location information and the development of technologies and institutional improvements to eliminate blind spots in precise positioning devices."