FCC: We Need Cellphones To Pinpoint a Caller's Location

New cellphone rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for emergency, or 911, calls have cellphone manufacturers and providers, and privacy and public safety advocates in an uproar.

Your cellphone already can track your general ground-level location using its GPS (global positioning system) application, or your location in relation to specific cellphone transmission towers.

The new rules specify, for the first time, that the FCC also wants cellphone providers to allow tracking of phones by altitude, The Washington Post reports.

Today, if you are on the 10th floor of an office building and make a 911 call, rescuers may find the specific building quickly, but could be forced to make a time-consuming search of every floor to find you, at a time when you are desperately in need of help and every second counts.