Your 911 call now finds you where you are, not where your bill goes

GCI has switched on location-based routing for 911. Before, calls could route based on a phone's registered service address — fine if you're calling from home, potentially dangerous if you're not.

In Alaska, "not home" might mean a fish camp on the Yukon, a trailhead in the Chugach, or a boat off Kodiak, while your billing address says Anchorage. The old system could send your emergency call to the wrong dispatch center, costing minutes that matter. The new setup uses your device's real-time location to route the call to the correct 911 center — the public-safety answering point that can actually send help to where you are.

It covers GCI's newer IP-based wireless networks and includes texting to 911 as well, which matters for anyone who can't safely speak or is in a spot with signal too weak for a call. GCI says location data is walled off for 911 use only and can't be used for anything else without the caller's consent.

The change satisfies a federal deadline that took effect this spring.