WASHINGTON-A Richardson, Texas, inventor says he has developed a way to allow public safety answering points to call back non-initialized phones that make 911 calls.
The statement comes as the industry, public-safety agencies and consumer advocates submitted comments on proposed Federal Communications Commission rules that might have required carriers to provide a call-back number when an emergency call is placed on their networks from a non-initialized phone.
The FCC currently requires carriers to connect 911 calls to PSAPs from non-initialized handsets, but because the users are not subscribers, there is not an accompanying telephone number sent. Non-initialized phones can include 911-only phones, phones obtained through a charity donation program or phones where the service has been turned off.
The System Beta invention purports to be a software-only upgrade that can be implemented as carriers upgrade switches to accommodate enhanced 911 and local number portability mandates.
“Most of the required software upgrades are needed in any case for [mobile service switching centers] to meet the previous goals laid down for the cellular network with regard to Phase I and II of E911 and LNP, so development resources are synergistically deployed in this instance rather than being diverted or in competition with other objectives,” said Richard C. Levine of Beta Scientific Laboratory Inc.
System Beta would create a database for non-initialized phones. When those phones dial 911, the PSAP operator would be informed it was a non-initialized phone by the call-back number that would appear. Although this call-back number would be 10 digits like a regular telephone number, it also likely would include letters, thus differentiating it from a normal phone number. If the connection to the non-initialized phone was lost and the PSAP operator wanted to reconnect, they would simply push the automatic redial number. The switch would recognize the non-initialize phone, contact the database and connect the call, said Levine.
“There is abundant historical evidence that [commercial mobile radio service] carriers will scrape the bottom of the barrel to find reasons why they cannot satisfy even the slightest change in hardware or software to enhance the safety and security of the public who depend on the public’s airwaves to reach help in time of emergency. The carriers’ strategy is always the same: offer no solutions and attack any proposal suggested by others,” said the Wireless Consumers Alliance Inc.
The wireless industry will have a chance to respond to Levine and WCA when replies are due in August. In the meantime, their comments said a technical solution does not exist.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. said it was technically impossible to implement a solution that would allow for a call-back number without disrupting anti-fraud measures.
Sprint PCS said its vendors, Lucent Technologies Inc. and Nortel Networks, had said that a technical solution did not exist.
Meanwhile, public-safety agencies continued to press the FCC to require carriers to supply a call-back number for non-initialized phones.
In other E911 news, the FCC last week put out for comment Cingular’s waiver application filed late on July 6. Comments are due July 31 with replies on Aug. 10.
In other waiver-related action, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association joined AT&T Wireless Services Inc. in supporting the waiver application of Cincinnati Bell Wireless L.L.C. Cincinnati Bell Wireless has an agreement with AT&T that has AT&T upgrading the Cincinnati Bell system. Since AT&T needs a waiver, Cincinnatti Bell does, too.
Finally, network solution providers have been meeting with FCC to refute carrier allegations that their systems do not work. TruePosition Inc. met with representatives of FCC Commissioners Kathleen Q. Abernathy’s and Gloria Tristani’s offices on July 5. Representatives of the Grayson Wireless Division of Allen Telecom Inc. met with staff from the policy division of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau in late June.
