FCC asks appeals court to dump E-911 rules: Cites public safety communities claim for more relaxed standards

The Federal Communications Commission asked a federal appeals court to throw out enhanced 911 location accuracy rules approved last November but not yet put into effect, pointing to public safety groups’ recent disclosure that they would settle for a relaxed standard.
“In light of the public safety community’s support for revised rules, the commission believes that voluntary remand and vacatur of the order would serve the interests of justice,” said the FCC in a filing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Late last month, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International and the National Emergency Number Association told the FCC its previous advocacy measuring wireless E-911 accuracy at public safety answering point level proved unworkable in practice and that they were to accept compliance measurements at the county level.
The FCC’s E-911 location accuracy rule was appealed by the Rural Cellular Association, T-Mobile USA Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp.
In the past, the mobile phone industry has lobbied for assessing E-911 location accuracy by statewide averaging. But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin argued such a method was too lax and would not protect consumers who make emergency calls on their cellphones.
“The commission’s motion is an appropriate course of action at this juncture and, for that reason, RCA did not object to the relief requested by the FCC,” stated the group. “RCA looks forward to working with the commission and the public safety community to ensure that any revised E-911 location accuracy standards adopted by the Commission are well-reasoned and serve the intended purposes.”
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 also 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.
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. But new E-911 guidelines have not gone into effect because the D.C. Circuit agreed to stay the FCC’s decision on hold during the court case.
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.