The Federal Communications Commission late Friday substantially changed its implementation rules for enhanced 911 Phase II handset deployment and granted a waiver to VoiceStream Wireless Corp. that will permit it to offer its hybrid solution on a different schedule.
Public-safety officials regretted that the FCC had to change the schedule, but conceded it was probably necessary.
“Fundamentally, we’re disappointed that the commission is put in a position where they even had to consider any modification to the 911 rule. But recognizing the reality of the situation, many of the adjustments to the time frames appear to reflect a realistic situation,” said Joe Hanna, captain of the Richardson, Texas, Police Department and a past president of the Associated Public Safety Communications Officials International.
The first change gives carriers more time to decide whether they are going to deploy a handset- or network-based solution. This report was due on Oct. 1, but now has been pushed back to Nov. 9.
If carriers choose a handset-based solution, the implementation schedule has been changed to reflect manufacturers’ concerns that they could not meet the deadline. Carriers now have until Oct. 1, 2001, to start selling handsets with automatic location information. Previously, carriers were to start selling these handsets on March 1.
Sprint PCS, for one, was not concerned about the beginning sell date-although it is sooner than manufacturers had said handsets would be available-but about the interim activation rates.
“I am not sure what happens if you put handsets for sale and they are not purchased … What I don’t know how to do is how to sell a particular type of handsets. … The interim measurements are not necessarily useful to get the job done,” said Jonathan Chambers, Sprint PCS vice president for regulatory affairs.
The new schedule calls for 25 percent of all new handsets activated by Dec. 31, 2001 to be ALI-capable. This number rises to 50 percent on June 30, 2002, and 100 percent on Dec. 31, 2002.
Qualcomm Inc., which had argued to keep the original schedule, said it would be ready.
“Qualcomm will supply GPS-enabled chipsets in high volume to the wireless industry in accordance with the FCC deployment schedule. These chipsets will meet the FCC’s accuracy requirements easily,” said Jonas Neihardt, Qualcomm vice president of federal government affairs.
In addition, the new rules modify the operational definition of full penetration from “reasonable efforts” to achieve 100-percent penetration of ALI-capable handsets to a requirement that 95 percent of all handsets in a carrier’s total subscriber base be ALI-capable.
The two women commissioners dissented from the majority decision to grant a VoiceStream waiver that the FCC said requires the GSM carrier to comply with network-based accuracy standard initially and then to come into full compliance with the more stringent handset standard within two years.
“We respectfully dissent from the decision to grant VoiceStream a waiver of our enhanced 911 Phase II location identification rules. We would have preferred to seek public comment on VoiceStream’s request to better understand the consequences for VoiceStream customers and E911 deployment generally,” said FCC Commissioners Susan Ness and Gloria Tristani in a joint statement.
On the other side, VoiceStream said the waiver approval showed the FCC’s willingness to permit technological innovation.
“We are very pleased that the commission is permitting technological innovation in achieving its E911 location goals,” said Bob Calaff, VoiceStream corporate counsel.
