Email: Finding location

I continue to be dismayed when reading details about that Chesterfield Canal emergency and the CaRT 'emergency' number!

One small detail that may be of some consolation to your correspondent Mick Fitzgibbons, however:

As far as I'm aware from my work with one of the NHS Ambulance services in England, when an emergency call is received from a mobile phone, the geographic location of the GSM cell from where the call is being made is automatically available to the emergency control room.

Obviously this by no means pinpoints the location (particularly in rural areas, where the cell could be miles across), but in combination with information from the caller, it certainly helps.

David Davis