A personal wireless gateway (PWG) comprises a host controller that bridges telecommunications devices using different transmission media allowing a telecommunications device designed for a particular media to be used to communicate over any other available media. Corded and cordless plain old telephones (POTS) may initiate and receive telephone calls over the public switched network (PSTN) or may be bridged to a mobile telephone to initiate and receive telephone calls via the mobile telephone network. A telephone configured for voice over IP (VoIP) may initiate and receive telephone calls via a broadband connection, the PTSN, or a mobile telephone network. A broadband connection may also be used to support high-speed data exchange between the Internet and one or more computer (e.g., laptop, general purpose computer, personal data assistant) via a wireless LAN or via a mobile telephone connected to a wireless data network The PWG is adapted to provide the location of the PWG to an emergency assistance service when an emergency assistance number is called from any device during predefined intervals and/or if the caller is unable to speak. Additionally, the PWG provides devices without fixed locations the attribute of a known location. The location information may be stored expressly by the user or gleaned from the user profile information. By way of illustration and not as a limitation, the emergency assistance service may be a "911" operator.