EENA Conference 2026 in Riga: What Europe's emergency call infrastructure must deliver now

EENA 2026: A conference focused on the reality of emergency calls

From 15 to 17 April, the EENA Conference 2026 brought together experts from across Europe and beyond in Riga to discuss current developments around the 112 emergency call service, identify challenges and share best practices.

One thing quickly became clear: this is not an abstract technology debate, but a practical question of how emergency communication can work reliably under changing technical and geopolitical conditions. That point also came through in the conference's side program, which put striking emphasis on the humanitarian dimension of emergency and rescue communication.

Special recognition went to Demetrios Pyrros, founder of EENA and co-founder of Doctors Without Borders in Greece, who received the Special 112 Award for his contributions. Leonid Tymtschenko of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs also spoke about the operational reality of emergency calls and crisis communication under extreme conditions.

The key takeaway from Riga: emergency call technology is improving – and growing more vulnerable during migration

Europe's emergency call service is moving in the right direction, both operationally and technologically. At the same time, fragility is increasing during the transition. That is especially true wherever new standards and services have to be integrated into existing network and control-room structures. Topics such as direct-to-device connectivity via satellite, post-2G/3G emergency calling, enhanced caller location, NG112 transition solutions and resilience in crisis situations all show that the target architecture is becoming increasingly visible. The critical question is whether it will actually function reliably in live operation.

Satellite-based reachability moves from future vision to a real deployment path

One closely watched topic in Riga was the development of direct-to-device connectivity for emergency calls via satellite. The direction is clear: where terrestrial mobile networks are absent in rural areas or fail during a crisis, satellite-based communication can add an extra layer of resilience for emergency calls.

The discussion showed that this development is no longer purely visionary. European and international players are already working on concrete solutions to enable emergency communication over 5G and low-earth-orbit satellites. For emergency call architecture, this means one thing above all: it will need to align even more consistently with IP-based, media-agnostic and interoperable communication models.

After 2G and 3G, emergency calling becomes more demanding, not easier

A central topic at the conference was the shift from classic circuit-switched emergency call architectures to 112 over 4G and IMS. This is exactly where it became clear why shutting down 2G and 3G networks is so critical for emergency calls.

Migrating to modern mobile network and IMS environments makes technical sense, but it raises the bar for configuration, interoperability and operations. Changes to network architectures or device configurations can affect voice, data and emergency call services all at once. Real-world outages in various markets show that these risks are not hypothetical.

The conference singled out the following as particularly critical:

• incomplete or inconsistently implemented specifications

• gaps in 4G coverage and voice availability

• missing migration strategies for 112 during network shutdown

• dependencies on device and configuration updates

• cross-border interoperability issues

• limited callback options in certain scenarios

For emergency calls, the 3G shutdown is far more than a routine technology switch – it is a highly critical migration intervention in life-critical infrastructure.

Location data becomes the decisive quality factor

The continued evolution of location transmission matters, because in an emergency, the quality of location data directly determines how fast and how precisely help can be dispatched. Development is moving on from classic Cell-ID and AML toward network-based and SIP-based methods. This is about more than better accuracy alone; it is also about how location information is made available within the emergency process in a way that is stable, fast and usable.

Particularly relevant was the discussion around Advanced Network Location (ANL) and PIDF-LO. Both approaches point to where modern emergency call architectures are heading: away from supplementary information added downstream, toward structured location data that is available early in call setup and can also be used for routing decisions.

PIDF-LO becomes a key building block for NG112

One important signal from Riga was the growing relevance of PIDF-LO. Behind it lies the ability to carry location information directly within SIP-based call setup. That matters a great deal for NG112, because it allows location data from smartphones, or even from virtual PBX lines, to be delivered faster, in a more structured way and, in many cases, more resiliently than through methods applied downstream.

At the same time, it was made clear why rollout is not yet nationwide: there are technical limitations at the device and network level, regulatory frameworks differ, and end-to-end support within the network infrastructure still has gaps in places. Even so, the direction is clear. Anyone looking to advance NG112 needs to do more than capture location data; they need to carry it reliably end-to-end through the network and control-room environment.

NG112 in practice: Transition solutions remain important

Another conference topic was the practical rollout of NG112 functionality within existing control-room environments. Many PSAPs still rely on legacy PBX, CAD and GIS structures that have evolved over time and offer only limited support for new services such as RTT or NGeCall.

That is why transition solutions that add new functions alongside existing infrastructure are gaining importance. It shows exactly how the market is actually proceeding right now: not through a single wholesale replacement, but through integrated migration architectures.

Such models bring their own requirements, however, for example around callbacks, recording, media switching, or operational integration into existing processes. This, too, was an important signal from Riga: NG112 is as much an integration challenge as it is a standardization topic.

What this means for CreaLog and the market

Emergency calling is evolving into an IP-based, data-rich, media-agnostic and highly available service architecture. For MNOs, Emergency Call Service Providers and PSAPs, that means technological modernization and operational stability have to be planned together.

This is exactly where CreaLog's telco-grade platform expertise and integration strength come in. What matters today are solutions that address requirements including the following:

• reliable emergency call routing and call steering

• location-based routing

• support for eCall and NG eCall

• integration of modern NG112 services into existing network and control-room environments

• resilience and overflow scenarios for outages and crisis situations

• Learn more about our NG112 & eCall solutions

New standards alone won't get the market there; what it needs above all are partners with carrier expertise, integration capability and hands-on implementation experience.

Conclusion: The future of 112 will be decided by the quality of migration

Anyone who wants to future-proof 112 has to treat migration, routing, location, NG112 functionality and resilience as one connected infrastructure challenge.

The EENA Conference 2026 in Riga was, above all, a conference about implementation. The technological direction is clear: satellite-based reachability, NG112, more precise location transmission, new forms of communication and AI-supported assistance will change Europe's emergency call service for good. The decisive question is whether these technologies work reliably under real-world conditions.

This is exactly why the 3G shutdown matters so much. It shows just how dependent emergency calling has become on correctly implemented IP, VoLTE and IMS architectures, and that network outages are indeed possible. Modern emergency call infrastructure is measured not by how innovative it is, but by how reliably it performs when it truly matters.

CreaLog is a member of EENA (The European Emergency Number Association)

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