The new regulations could help. Within two years, under the new regulations, providers would have to track callers to within 50 meters horizontally and 3 meters vertically for 67 percent of calls. Within five years, 80 percent of calls would need to have accurate indoor location information.

Meanwhile, for purposes unrelated to public safety, other private-sector companies are zipping ahead of wireless carriers in location tracking, largely thanks to Wi-Fi accuracy. Google provides tracking data everywhere you go; more than telling you where you are at a moment, the company can chart your entire location history. Engineers there are reportedly working on tracking devices down to inches . Apple’s Find My iPhone function has proved accurate enough to track lost devices across cities. Companies like Skyhook Wireless have been built around the idea. But telecoms and emergency responders, caught off guard by the rise of the mobile, have failed to catch up to those companies, as Richard Barnes and Brian Rosen explain in a history of 911 tracking at IEEE Spectrum .

The FCC is now considering new rules that may curb a related problem: location tracking. Rules that haven't been updated since 2010 require phone carriers to track a caller's location to within 50 to 300 meters, depending on the tracking technology used, when callers are outdoors. But 911 advocates have been arguing that the technology to track callers indoors is lacking. If you make a call inside, no current regulations are forcing carriers to deliver information on where you are. The FCC has said "indoor use poses unique obstacles."

Carriers have been fighting those regulations, as they have attempted several times to forcefully regulate 911 calls. The major providers have argued that the regulations would be overly difficult to put in place, and that better technology is right around the corner. They've argued, essentially, that tracking indoor calls is a solution in search of a problem. AT&T called the solution a "waste of scarce resources." FindMe911, an industry-funded group leading the charge for the regulations, has been a source of ire in FCC filings from carriers. T-Mobile wrote, "FindMe911 continues to push sensationalist headlines rather than facts as it tries to manufacture a crisis that simply does not exist." Verizon chimed in, writing, "While improvements in location estimates may be feasible in the future, experience shows that any such improvements will continue to diminish over time."

"It's a great concern to us that the carriers won't even acknowledge that it's a problem."

"It's a great concern to us that the carriers won't even acknowledge that it's a problem," FindMe911's Andrew Weinstein argues.

Dispatchers and others working in the 911 community agree with Weinstein; they say it's a continuous issue that's resulting in deaths across the country, maybe thousands. "The question is, how many lives do we have to lose?" says Danita Crombach, the president of the California chapter of NENA, the National Emergency Number Association. Crombach and a team conducted a study that determined more than half of 911 calls placed in California don't provide accurate 911 information. In San Francisco, the numbers were particularly dismal: more than 80 percent of 911 calls didn't accurately transmit information to first responders. In FCC filings, service providers have disputed the study's findings. Verizon and Sprint didn’t respond to requests for comment on this story; T-Mobile declined to comment.

This side of life

In August of last year, Vicki Miller, 911 coordinator for the city of Galesburg, Illinois, was upset with a company called Life Wireless.

When a call is put through to 911 operators, they "rebid" the call, pinging the wireless carrier for the longitude and latitude of the caller. But one day, she says, that wasn't what happened. A caller with a severe medical condition attempted to make a call with a phone from Life Wireless, a carrier that specializes in prepaid phones. He wasn't able to tell emergency responders his location. When they digitally asked for position data, it was wrong, Miller says; the number plotted inaccurately, far away from where they eventually found the caller.

"Upon calling Life Wireless on 08/23/13 was told they do not have the ability to complete trace information for 911..."

Miller, frustrated, tried contacting Life Wireless to determine what the problem was. According to a complaint she filed after the conversation, and what she later recalled, a representative with the company told her Life Wireless didn't have the ability to track location information, but that they would look into the issue.

Miller wrote to the FCC: "Upon calling Life Wireless on 08/23/13 was told they do not have the ability to complete trace information for 911 and took name and number for their supervisor. For 9-1-1 purposes — we need to find out how to fix the location information as well as who do we contact in an emergency situation for trace location and customer subscriber information."

Per FCC protocol, Life Wireless was sent the complaint, and it was later determined that the issue was resolved, although Miller wasn't certain how. "I had kind of had my fill with it and I decided I'd file a complaint," she says, "but honestly nothing ever came of it."

She escalated the issue with Life Wireless. Eventually, she says, she received a note from the company. "We do not give out confidential information without a subpoena or a court order," it said. Miller didn't have either, and that was the last communication they had.

Now, a year later, she says, problems with tracking callers are a daily issue. It's difficult to pin the incidents on any specific service provider — many share towers, or "ride a different carrier's backbone" — but it keeps happening. "Everyone assumes that they know immediately where they're at and that's not always so." Although the FCC requires tracking for outdoor calls, she says, "Some carriers are much better than others."

"This is an ongoing thing on the 911 side of life."