APCO

WASHINGTON-Public-safety advocates last week told President George W. Bush that Voice over Internet Protocol services need to be required to have access to enhanced 911 services regardless of how VoIP is otherwise regulated. “The public has an expectation that telephone …

WASHINGTON-Public-safety advocates Tuesday told President George W. Bush that Voice over Internet Protocol services need to be required to have access to enhanced 911 services regardless of how VoIP is otherwise regulated. “The public has an expectation that telephone services …

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International and The Consultant Registry, with the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, conducted a test to show how background sounds, which are important to 911 call-takers, are transmitted over a Voice over Internet Protocol …

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International and The Consultant Registry, with the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, conducted a test to show how background sounds, which are important to 911 call-takers, are transmitted over a Voice over Internet …

WASHINGTON-Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications Inc. say they have buried the hatchet on several issues. The truce included the companies dropping their lawsuits against each other and a pledge by Verizon Wireless to stop protesting the Federal Communications Commission’s plan …

Before the spinoff of its chip business, Motorola Inc. often came across as an octopus-a many-sided giant. With Freescale Semiconductor Inc. now a standalone company, the wireless vendor still weighs heavy in the industry. This has been both boon and …

WASHINGTON-A group that advocates for first-responder communications today sent letters to every member of Congress urging them to pass legislation that would require broadcasters to vacate TV channels that block police, firefighters, and medics from using 700 MHz frequencies. The …

WASHINGTON-The Association of Public-safety Communications Officials has released a set of best practices on how to deal with calls from telematics service providers. “Telematics is a great new technology and is becoming a household word as more and more standard …

Public safety remains committed to the idea of a hard 2007 give-back date for TV broadcasters to relinquish their analog spectrum. But if that is not realistic, the public-safety community would support an FCC Media Bureau staff proposal that would …

WASHINGTON-Public safety remains committed to the idea of a hard 2007 give-back date for TV broadcasters to relinquish their analog spectrum. But if that is not realistic, the public-safety community would support an FCC Media Bureau staff proposal that would …

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.-The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International named John Newman its new executive director. Newman joins APCO from Matsushita Communication Industrial Corp. of America, where he was vice president and functional chief operations officer.

WASHINGON-The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International today criticized a key report’s finding that federal regulators relax a government mandate governing one form of mobile-phone location-based 911 service. APCO said it finds objectionable a recommendation in the report-issued by the …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission stepped up its consumer-education campaign regarding wireless enhanced 911 Thursday when FCC Chairman Michael Powell appeared on the “CBS Early Show” to announce the release of a consumer advisory on wireless E911 service. “Consumers need to …

WASHINGTON-FCC Chairman Michael Powell invited all state officials responsible for deploying wireless enhanced 911 to the Federal Communications Commission in late October for the second part of the E911 Initiative, which was launched in the spring. “The FCC cannot make …

WASHINGTON-As lawmakers try to fix flaws they see in enhanced 911 services through various pieces of legislation, the Federal Communications Commission continues to punish carriers that have not properly deployed wireless 911 service. The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday passed a …

NASHVILLE-Catalyst Communications Technology, provider of Internet Protocol-based dispatch solutions for the public-safety mobile radio market, made two interoperability announcements at this month’s APCO show in Nashville. Catalyst announced that its IP Base product will now interoperate with RELM’s BK Radio …

WASHINGTON-In the world of wireless enhanced 911, the Fourth of July fireworks were not just up in the sky. Carriers, public-safety officials and government spent the holiday week reacting to a strongly worded letter from Thomas Wheeler, president of the …

WASHINGTON-The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau on Thursday denied a request from AT&T Wireless Services Inc. to keep confidential test results showing some enhanced 911 Phase II technologies won’t work for the carrier. “We find that the public interest requires that …

WASHINGTON-A public-safety initiative to bring all those involved in enhanced 911 implementation together got off to a rocky start last week when many of the largest carriers said they had either not been invited or were unaware of a press …

WASHINGTON-Fears about the timely deployment of enhanced 911 Phase II service appear to be coming true even as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission expressed optimism that the Oct.1 deadline will be met. In the last week alone, one …

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia-Motorola and Russia’s RadioTel launched a TETRA trial network in the second-biggest Russian city of St. Petersburg last year, planning to turn the technology into a federal standard and causing concern among cellular carriers attentively following the developments. …

WASHINGTON-VoiceStream Wireless Corp. fully expects to meet the extended deadlines the Federal Communications Commission set out for it to implement enhanced 911, said the GSM carrier recently. “All of VoiceStream’s infrastructure vendors have confirmed that they will have products available …

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has asked about a dozen federal agencies to evaluate the relocation costs and other needs associated with returning spectrum for private use. The NTIA request was made as the government begins the study process …

WASHINGTON-Public-safety officials last week told a powerful lawmaker that his bill to get Internet high-speed access to rural America using low-power TV signals could damage public safety’s efforts to get more spectrum. “We understand that [this bill] was intended to …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week eliminated the requirement that a cost-recovery mechanism be in place before carriers must deploy wireless enhanced 911 services. But the agency still will require that costs to public safety answering points be recovered before …