The Federal Communications Commission’s Phase I E911 deadline is set for Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean that dispatchers across the nation this week will begin receiving the extra information called for in the mandate.
Phase I requires carriers to relay the Automatic Number Identification of the originator of a 911 call and the location of the cell site or base station receiving the call to the designated public safety answering point. Covered carriers are required to comply with the mandate by Wednesday, provided that the PSAPs had requested the service by Oct. 1, 1997. Carriers were required by Oct. 1 to have initiated actions necessary to provide Phase I services, said an FCC order released Dec. 23.
According to the FCC mandate, though, Phase I requirements only apply if the carrier receives a request for the service from a PSAP that is capable of receiving and using the service, and if a cost-recovery method is in place. Many carriers said they are ready to provide Phase I services, but the PSAPs in their coverage areas do not have the ability to receive and process the information, or a cost-recovery mechanism is not yet in place.
Carriers said they are working closely with PSAPs to put the systems in place that will allow Phase I 911 services to be available.
Personal communications services provider Powertel Inc., for instance, said it has received just one formal request from a PSAP for Phase I services. The company said it is interviewing potential third-party vendors for the service and that its network will be ready to provide the service when requested.
“We knew these things were going to be coming at us, and we were ready from the outset,” said Bill Raines, director of FCC and network regulatory affairs at Powertel.
“We have over 1,500 public-safety answering points in our areas, and we’ve got a lot on our plate working closely with them,” said Joann Riner, a media relations manager at GTE Wireless. “We really can’t do much until the states pass the legislation to put the cost recovery process in place, and then we work with the PSAPs that are ready to start talking with us.”
Riner said GTE expects to go active with Phase I in Santa Barbara, Calif., and Austin, Texas, late in the second quarter.
“We are working very closely in those states that have adopted a cost-recovery process-Texas and California already had it in place,” said Riner. “Now we’ve got Alabama, Indiana and Virginia coming on board, and in Tennessee, we expect to have their legislation passed very quickly.”
Xypoint Corp., a provider of location-related information services, has been tracking the progress of cost-recovery legislation as it relates to E911 implementation. Last year, 10 states passed wireless E911 cost-recovery and indemnification measures, while 14 other states introduced legislation that did not pass, said Xypoint.
This year legislation was expected to be introduced in 21 states. At press time six states had taken action on cost-recovery bills.
“Wireless E911 bills are now on the front burner across the nation, and, fortunately there are consistent patterns that have surfaced regarding the key policy issues,” said Reuven M. Carlyle, vice president of external affairs for Xypoint.
