WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission should “declare victory” on the deployment of enhanced 911 service, even if many carriers do not have 95 percent of their customers using a location-capable handset. That was the advice from Richard Barth, corporate vice president of homeland-security strategy for Motorola Inc., to a legal conference last week. “The FCC has forced the industry to make great strides,” said Barth, but “you should not expect a 100-percent churn rate.”
Speaking at the 23rd Annual Public Law Institute on Telecommunications Policy & Regulation, Barth said his father has a very old non-location-capable phone that he would not give up even if his carrier offered him a new free phone every week.
The comments came on the same day the FCC said Northeast Communications of Wisconsin Inc., also known as Cellcom, could have until Dec. 9, 2006, to meet the 95-percent threshold. Although the FCC said it believed that Cellcom had challenges similar to other rural carriers, Cellcom did not provide data sufficient to warrant the requested extension of March 31, 2008.
The FCC is considering several waiver requests of its Dec. 31 deadline. By that date, carriers that have chosen a handset-based solution to E-911 rules must supply 95 percent of their customers with location-capable handsets.
E-911 service is being deployed in two phases. Phase I required carriers to supply public-safety answering points with a callback number and cell-site location information. The deadline was April 1, 1998.
Phase II requires more precise location information. It was supposed to be available in some areas by Oct. 1, 2001, but the FCC waived that requirement, giving each nationwide carrier a different implementation schedule. All carriers and all markets must deployed by 2006. RCR
