WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is expected shortly to rule on Motorola Inc.’s 911 call processing-telematics waiver request, a filing that attracted industry support and sharp criticism from consumer and public-safety groups.
Motorola last month asked the FCC for permission to build an additional 30,000 handsets for analog telematics systems in Ford and Jaguar cars without having to meet 911 call-processing rules.
Those rules, which kicked in Feb. 13, require that new analog phones and multimode phones swiftly complete 911 calls to either analog carrier in a market.
Motorola said software changes needed to bring analog phones into compliance with 911 call-processing rules have triggered problems for its telematics system. But because the current inventory of Motorola analog handsets is expected to be exhausted by the middle of April and the fact that a next-generation digital phone telematics unit will be implemented in the 2001 model, Motorola said relief would be justified.
The FCC previously granted Motorola, L.M. Ericsson and Nokia Corp. brief extensions to give the firms more time to comply with the commission’s Feb. 13 911 call-completion compliance date.
This month, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. asked for a waiver in order to modify certain digital mobile phones with analog capability.
In addition to 911 call completion, the FCC is finding that wireless industry compliance with a variety of safety-related regulations-from identifying emergency callers and nearest cell sites to locating callers within several hundred feet-has been slow in coming.
Some companies have introduced products to address the issue. For example, Grayson Wireless offers the Geometrix Wireless Location Solution, a E911 Phase II-compliant technology that provides accurate estimates of a wireless phone signal.
Still, the industry has defended delays, pointing to legal, legislative and technological obstacles. For sure, safety-related upgrades to mobile phones require additional financial outlays by manufacturers and carriers.
“We submit that it would be a violation … for Motorola, or any manufacturer, to make telematics mobile phones with a wink and a nod toward the commission’s objectives in establishing E911 safety procedures,” stated Carl Hilliard, head of the Wireless Consumers Alliance. “The numbers of these systems in use today may be small but the projections for future use are substantial.”
As such, WCA said the FCC should condition any waiver on requirements that emergency calls to Ford’s nationwide service center not be intercepted by an operator demanding credit card information and that all telematics phones manufactured by Motorola after May 2000 be designed and installed so that the user has unobstructed ability to dial 911.
The National Emergency Number Association said non-public safety telematics functions should be subordinated to FCC-mandated 911 call completion.
“The solution should be to disable the secondary telematics services rather than to eliminate the call completion enhancement in these car phones,” stated NENA.
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association had a different perspective. “The relief requested by Motorola affects only a small portion of the handset market, and only for the remainder of this automobile model year-a very short time.”
