Rural Cellular Corp. last week demonstrated its Phase II wireless enhanced 911 service at the International Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials show in Minneapolis.
Jim Alstadt, project manager and research and development manager at RCC, said the company hopes the work it has done on deploying a viable Phase II solution will serve as a blueprint for other wireless carriers and public-safety organizations trying to figure out how to deploy Phase II.
Together with location company KSI Inc., as well as CML Technologies, 911 Datamaster Inc., GeoComm Inc. and Independent Emergency Services L.L.C., RCC is beta testing an end-to-end network-based Phase II system in Grand and Douglas counties in central Minnesota. Alstadt said the company is awaiting state approval to begin handling live emergency calls on the system.
Alstadt said the company will be able to provide Phase II service in all of its markets well in advance of the October 2001 Federal Communications Commission deadline, provided the public-safety agencies in each state are on board.
The wireless industry also last week was celebrating an E911 victory. A bill that provides liability protection to carriers that handle emergency calls on their networks passed the Senate.
The legislation would give wireless carriers the same liability protection enjoyed by the local landline carrier in each state. Typical landline liability protection releases carriers from responsibility for emergency calls that are mishandled and result in death, injury or loss of property, except in cases of negligence.
Many industry experts contend the liability issue is one of the biggest factors in a disappointing deployment to date of Phase I services.
“The between-the-lines message is that this is the first time Congress has weighed in and really said anything about 911 and emergency communications and any area relative to wireless and wireline parity,” said Stephen Meer, chief technology officer at SCC Communications Corp., which has been actively involved with regulatory issues surrounding wireless E911 for several years.
“The message as I read it is that Congress wants wireless 911 and they want there to be parity between wireless and wireline carriers in this respect, and I think the reason the wording worked so well is that at a federal level, it doesn’t specify what the liability protections are for wireless carriers,” said Meer.
Meer said he believes many wireless E911 deployments are stuck in the contract phase because of the need for long and complex documents that public safety answering points are not equipped to handle efficiently. The legislation, he said, could streamline that process.
The measure must now go back to the House for approval and then be signed into law by President Clinton. Meer said the industry hopes that could happen by the end of September.
