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APCO: Public-safety suffers in search for compromise on location accuracy

WASHINGTON-The Association of Public-safety Communications Officials last month broke with other public-safety advocates and the telecommunications industry, refusing to support a report to the FCC's Network Reliability & Interoperability Council. "While NRIC VII work group 1A was chartered to minimize the conflicting ambiguous language...

Public safety asks Congress for hard DTV transition date

WASHINGTON-A coalition of nine local and public-safety advocacy groups, led by the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials, released a statement urging Congress to pass a hard date to end TV's transition to digital technology."We are writing to remind Congress that this issue is not...

APCO tells President Bush to force VoIP to access 911

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 services will provide 911...

APCO tells President Bush to force VoIP to access 911

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 will provide 911 and...

News Briefs

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 system. Since VoIP does...

APCO tests VoIP’s effects on 911 calls

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 Protocol system. Since VoIP...

Verizon, Nextel call truce, 800 MHz may progress

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 to solve public-safety interference...

Motorola’s Warrior lays out the vision of ‘liquid media’

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 pain for the Schaumburg,...

APCO letters urge broadcasters to clear 700 MHz spectrum

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 Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials...

APCO releases best practices for handling telematics calls

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 vehicles are becoming equipped with...

APCO endorses Media Bureau DTV plan

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 make spectrum available in...

APCO endorses Media Bureau DTV plan

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 make spectrum available in...

APCO names Newman executive director

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.

APCO criticizes NENA SWAT report

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 National Emergency Number Association and...

FCC releases consumer advisory on E911

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 know that some wireless carriers...

Powell highlights 911 at APCO convention

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 E911 happen-we need carriers, public...

E911 bill advances, T-Mobile USA to pay $1.1M fine

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 bill that would ensure...

Catalyst announces two interoperability agreements

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 GBH desktop base station. Under...

CTIA lights E911 fireworks

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 Cellular Telecommunications & Internet...

AT&T, Nextel must supply more E911 data

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 these materials be made available...

Public safety tries to make 911 connection with carriers through Project LOCATE

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 conference meant to kick...

E911 Phase II deadline nightmare materializes: Powell remains optimistic deadline can be met

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 of the nation's largest carriers...

Russian cellular carriers watch TETRA’s progress: Technology could become federal standard

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.TETRA is a European-developed digital...

VoiceStream says it can meet 911 deadlines

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 incorporating location solution by...