Public-safety groups, which last year successively persuaded federal regulators to adopt a strict enhanced 911 location accuracy standard over the objections of wireless providers, now say the rule is unworkable and should be replaced with a more lenient one. They also told the Federal Communications Commission that previously approved E-911 guidelines should be relaxed, but it does not appear that new concessions will derail legal challenges to the agency’s latest E-911 changes.
“We have previously advocated that wireless E-911 accuracy should be measured at the PSAP [public safety answering point] level. We are now willing to accept compliance measurements at the county level,” stated Association of Public-Safety Communications International President Willis Carter and National Emergency Number Association President Ronald Boneau in a letter to FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief Derek Poarch.
Moreover, they recommended a waiver process be established to address cases in which carriers cannot technically meet modified location accuracy requirements in every county.
PSAP changes
Carter and Boneau said the policy shift was prompted in part by changes in the PSAP community, such as consolidation of 911 centers and changes to PSAP geographic boundaries to match county boundaries. There are approximately 6,000 PSAPs in the United States.
The public-safety organizations’ change in posture on E-911 rules comes about three months after NENA hired Brian Fontes – a former FCC policymaker who managed federal regulatory affairs at cellular industry association CTIA, Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and AT&T Mobility – to fill its new CEO position.
Cellular operators must regularly locate emergency callers anywhere between 50 meters and 300 meters of their actual position, depending on the type of E-911 technology they use. The FCC has fined a number of national operators in recent years for failure to meet E-911 obligations. APCO and NENA said there is room to soften those E-911 provisions, explaining that measuring location accuracy in specific counties is particularly difficult for many wireless providers because of variations in geography and systems.
CTIA, citing pending E-911 litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, said it could not comment on the APCO-NENA letter. Many mobile-phone operators had wanted E-911 compliance based on statewide averaging. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his colleagues said such a standard was inadequate insofar as improving chances for first responders to pinpoint the location of callers.
RCA cautiously behind move
The Rural Cellular Association – which along with T-Mobile USA Inc. appealed the FCC’s E-911 location decision in 2007 and subsequently secured a court stay of the rule – said the APCO-NENA letter is a step in the right direction. However, RCA said the proposed rule revisions fall short of addressing other wireless E-911 issues.
“RCA is encouraged by the recognition that PSAP-level location accuracy is not a practical measure and that APCO-NENA now acknowledge that wireless carriers are unable to provide reliable location accuracy information in all counties,” the association stated. “Unfortunately, the litigation posture is not changed until all issues that involve the commission’s 2007 amendment to the location accuracy rules are resolved.”
In last September’s decision, the FCC ordered operators to meet interim and annual benchmarks during the next five years to ensure full compliance by Sept. 11, 2012.
The FCC, wireless providers and the public-safety community have struggled to improve wireless E-911 for more than a decade, a situation complicated by technological capability, local and state budgets and shifting trends that have Americans increasingly making mobile phones their primary communications devices. The E-911 location accuracy debate has gained urgency with findings that current technology may be inadequate to locate the many emergency calls made indoors and in rural areas.
Federal telecom policymakers want to examine whether there should be one, technology-neutral standard for wireless E-911 accuracy. Some companies, like Polaris Wireless, TruePosition Inc. and Rosum Corp., would stand to gain commercially if such a hybrid standard is adopted.
Marty Feuerstein, CTO of Polaris Wireless, predicted the APCO-NENA letter would advance the dialogue between industry and public on improving E-911 location accuracy.
