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 off the event.
“It is time to stop the finger-pointing and start the hand-holding,” said Dr. Angelo Salvucci, medical director of emergency medical services for the Ventura County (Calif.) Health Care Agency. Often in this debate public safety has said the carriers were dragging their feet while the carriers have said the public safety answering points weren’t able to accept precise wireless location information.
Salvucci was participating in a press conference called by the Association of Public-safety Communication Officials International to talk about its Project LOCATE: Locate our citizens at times of emergency.
APCO’s Project LOCATE is meant to solve the inevitable problems that will come as the nation moves toward implementing E911 Phase II service this fall, said Thera Bradshaw, APCO first vice president and executive director of the City and County of San Francisco Emergency Communications Department.
These problems will occur, Bradshaw said, because each PSAP is different and has implemented individual E911 technology for the wireline side that will have to be meshed with the wireless technology being deployed by carriers.
There are 48 model PSAPs that have been chosen as part of Project LOCATE. Hawaii and Delaware have yet to choose their model PSAPs to participate in the program.
As part of Project LOCATE, APCO will give monthly updates to the FCC and the media outlining any problems that have been encountered and urging assistance from the Federal Communications Commission when necessary. James D. Schlichting, deputy chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, said the bureau supported the efforts of Project LOCATE.
“The wireless bureau wanted to come and show its support for Project LOCATE. … We re-pledge our commitment to doing what we can to make Phase II [a reality on deadline] as reasonably as possible,” said Schlichting.
While it is unclear whether carriers were invited or notified of the event, a representative of Nextel Communications Inc. attended, but did not identify himself when a reporter raised the question.
“I don’t think it was appropriate, without being asked by APCO, for us to participate in the press conference,” said Lawrence R. Krevor, Nextel’s senior director of government affairs.
William Hinkle, Project LOCATE chair and director of the Hamilton County (Ohio) Department of Communications, said he had met with Thomas E. Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, the day before the press conference and personally invited him to the event.
Wheeler was not asked to participate, said Travis Larson, CTIA spokesman, but a CTIA representative attended the press conference.
Another problem with Phase II implementation is that each PSAP has a different set of carriers in each market that must implement service. Hinkle said APCO would be thrilled if just one carrier broke ranks with the rest of the industry and successfully implemented Phase II by the deadline.
The carriers and public-safety community have been in a food fight over E911 since the early 1990s when the rapid emergence of wireless phones-and people using them to make 911 calls-pinpointed the lack of location information, a problem already solved in the wireline world.
An agreement between the wireless industry and public-safety officials in the mid-1990s was meant to solve the problem by phasing in location information.
Phase I required carriers to supply a callback number and cell-site location information to PSAPs. It was due to be implemented by April 1, 1998, but is still being deployed.
Phase II required more precise location information, depending on whether a carrier chose a handset- or network-based solution. Handset-based solutions must be able to locate the caller within 50 meters 67 percent of the time and within 150 meters 95 percent of the time. Network-based solutions must be able to locate the caller within 100 meters 67 percent of the time and within 300 meters 95 percent of the time. Carriers that chose a handset-based solution have until Oct. 1 to start selling handsets with automatic location information (ALI). The new schedule calls for 25 percent of all new handsets activated by Dec. 31 to be ALI-capable. This number rises to 50 percent on June 30, 2002 and 100 percent on Dec. 31, 2002. Carriers who choose network-based must deploy the solution within six months of a PSAP request as of Oct. 1.
It now appears that the deadline may be delayed again, but this time on a carrier-by-carrier basis.
Earlier this month, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. asked for a waiver that will allow it implement two different Phase II technologies. The first known as the mobile-assisted network location system would be implemented by April 2002, but would not meet the FCC’s accuracy requirements. The second, enhanced observed time difference of arrival, would be deployed as AT&T Wireless overlays its TDMA network with GSM technology. The FCC is accepting comments on the AT&T waiver request until May 7 replies are due May 21.
The FCC is also considering a waiver request by Nextel.
The agency approved a waiver for VoiceStream Wireless Corp. that will allow it to implement EOTD. APCO has asked that this waiver be reconsidered and a staff recommendation on this is pending before the commissioners, said Kris Ann Monteith, chief of the WTB policy division.
With former FCC Chairman William E. Kennard gone, it is believed that an APCO reconsideration petition to rescind the waiver is stalled at the commission level with a two-two vote. FCC Commissioners Susan Ness and Gloria Tristani dissented from the waiver grant in the first place but FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell and FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth agreed to grant the waiver. It is expected these positions have not changed.
