Wireless carriers in the United States have been focusing a great deal of attention on a government mandate concerning emergency calls made from wireless phones.
The United States has in place a three-digit phone number-911-that citizens can call to be connected with police, fire and rescue dispatchers at centers called public safety answering points (PSAPs). On the landline side, dispatchers have access to information about the location where the call is being made, as well as the phone number of the caller. Until recently, however, dispatchers receiving 911 calls from wireless phones got little information and often had to rely on the caller to give them the location of the emergency.
In June 1996, the Federal Communications Commission drafted a two-part mandate aimed at giving dispatchers answering wireless 911 calls more useful information. The mandate was completed late last year.
According to the first phase of the mandate, carriers were required by 1 April to provide PSAPs with the 10-digit call-back number and the location of the cell site transmitting the 911 call. The second phase of the mandate requires carriers by 2001 to implement systems to provide PSAPs with the location of a wireless caller to within no more than 125 meters 67 percent of the time.
Phase I addresses the critical need for giving dispatchers a way to call back a wireless phone if a distress call is disconnected or dropped. It also helps dispatchers determine the general location of an emergency, which helps crews arrive on the scene more quickly.
Deployment of Phase I, however, has been spotty despite the 1 April deadline, say analysts. A provision of the FCC’s mandate says carriers only are required to provide Phase I services if they receive a request from a PSAP equipped to handle the enhanced data. Some carriers say they have yet to receive a request for the service from most PSAPs in their coverage areas.
Another provision of the mandate says states must have implemented a method for recovering the costs of deploying such a service. About half of the states have passed legislation providing for cost recovery, most with a surcharge between a few cents and a dollar added to customers’ monthly bills.
The requirements outlined in Phase II of the mandate pose a more technical challenge, which has given rise to a new category of vendors hoping to capitalize on the mandate. These vendors have devised systems that determine the location of wireless callers either through equipment in wireless handsets, within wireless networks or a combination of the two.
Handset-based solutions make use of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, which are capable of providing highly accurate location information.
Network-based solutions use sophisticated algorithms to calculate location information based on data received at two or more cell sites. Time Difference of Arrival technology measures the difference in the time it takes for signals to reach separate cell sites, and Angle of Arrival technology does the same thing using the different angles at which signals are received at each cell site.
The FCC did not mandate a technology to address Phase II, electing instead to let the marketplace determine the best solution. That has led to widespread debate among vendors.
Proponents of handset-based solutions say carriers will find it too expensive to retrofit each base station in their networks with equipment for network-based solutions. They also say network-based solutions are less successful in rural areas where cell sites are more spread out and often wireless signals are not received by more than one site.
Backers of network-based solutions, however, say their systems automatically will work for the installed base of subscribers, while handset-based solutions require equipment to be installed in every handset. GPS also has some inherent shortcomings, including drain on power and the need for a minimally obstructed view of the sky.
Several Phase II systems are being trialed, and some industry experts believe the technology will be deployed in some markets by next year-two years ahead of the mandate deadline.
Industry experts also said they expect some international markets-primarily Japan and Europe-will adopt rules similar to the United States’ wireless 911 mandate. However, those markets are likely to wait and see what happens in the United States first, they said.
While interest in location technologies is being driven in the United States by the FCC’s mandate, location vendors are hoping to cash in on revenue-generating location services that can include anything from providing directions and roadside assistance to a variety of location-specific content such as the nearest hotel or restaurant.
Location vendors also see promise in using the technology for location-sensitive billing. That scenario would allow carriers to bill customers different rates for when they are at home, at the office or somewhere else. It is thought that type of service would allow wireless carriers to compete with landline carriers for minutes of use.
Location technologies are more likely to be implemented for commercial purposes first in international markets. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, for instance, already has contracted with location vendor SnapTrack Technologies Inc. to use its service in revenue-generating applications.
The mobile location services market is expected to reach all 148 million wireless subscribers in North America by 2005, according to a report by Ovum, a telecommunications and information technology analyst firm. Service revenues for mobile location services in North America will reach US$2.4 billion by 2005, said the forecast.
