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 funds collected by states and localities for wireless enhanced 911 services are not spent anywhere else. Meanwhile, legislation also is being considered to require automatic crash notification calls be delivered to public-safety answering points via the 911 system.
The E911 bill, introduced by Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), passed without controversy. But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, warned during the hearing that some issues must be resolved before the bill is taken up by the full Senate.
McCain said he is concerned whether the FCC has enough resources to take on the additional oversight contained in the bill. These oversight functions include reviewing reports filed every six months by states to certify they are not raiding their E911 funds.
While the FCC has often lamented its overworked staff, Meribeth McCarrick, spokeswoman for the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, said no one from the agency had contacted McCain to make this specific complaint. “I am not aware of anyone here that has had conversations with the Hill concerning funding or resource issues with respect to the E911 bill,” said McCarrick.
The bill would create a grant program for states to deploy E911 service. The grants would be withheld from states that use money from 911 taxes collected from wireless customers to solve budget problems.
At the same time the Clinton/Burns bill seems to be on a fast track to Senate-floor action, legislation is being considered by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to require automatic crash notification (ACN) calls be routed through the 911 network.
Not everyone-including the public-safety lobbying group- likes the idea.
“Our concern is that this or similar language could be construed as a federal requirement that there be a direct connection of ACN information to PSAPs. The Association of Public-safety Communications Officials believes that such a federal requirement is neither necessary nor appropriate at this time,” said APCO President Vincent Stile in a letter to the Senate committee.
“Rather, the public-safety community and the telematics industry need to proceed collaboratively and voluntarily to develop appropriate standards and procedures for the gathering and dissemination of ACN and other information from telematics call centers to public-safety communications centers. Congress and the FCC should allow the public-safety community and the telematics industry to proceed along those lines, rather than imposing a national solution that could be ineffective or worse counterproductive,” Stiles continued.
“The much bigger safety issue is that car companies are not putting this stuff in their cars and anything that causes a pause in telematics deployment is a serious safety issue and certainly the threat of federal regulation is a disincentive,” said David Alyward, executive director of Communications for Coordinated Assistance and Response to Emergencies (ComCare) Alliance.
Intrado Inc., which runs a 911 network used in many places, is reportedly pushing the language. If the language is approved, telematics call centers first would determine if the ACN call-either a mayday call or an airbag deployment- was indeed an emergency. If deemed so, the call center would route the call to a PSAP using the 911 network. Today call centers typically dial a 10-digit number to reach the PSAP.
“Proper routing of ACN emergency calls is a serious public-safety issue. Intrado believes that ACN call centers should deliver these emergency call centers through the 911 network so they can be answered with the same priority as other emergency calls,” Intrado said.
Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.) is behind the legislation. As well as belonging to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Bond sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee so he could include the telematics routing language in the Transportation appropriations bill. However, calls to Bond’s office over several weeks were not returned.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is currently drafting the transportation re-authorization bill, an omnibus bill that includes everything from road construction authorization to safety-related issues. The full committee likely will consider the transportation bill after lawmakers return from the August recess.
The usefulness of telematics was highlighted last week for lawmakers when a car-jacker was caught using a system installed in the victim’s vehicle by ATX Technologies. A driver of a similar Mercedes arrived at the scene of the car-jacking moments after the event, and knew it would be equipped with ATX’s telematics service. Using the SOS button in his car, ATX was notified. After it confirmed the incident with the victim, ATX worked with local authorities to locate the vehicle. The victim’s two children, who were inside the vehicle, were returned safely to their mother.
While Congress works to strengthen the 911 system, the FCC wrapped up enforcement proceedings for carriers that have been delinquent in deploying the technology.
The T-Mobile consent decree wraps up the outstanding issues regarding the use of enhanced-observed-time-difference-of-arrival technology for E911. EOTD is a hybrid network/handset-based technology for GSM systems that never met the location benchmarks in the FCC’s rules.
T-Mobile, and later AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Cingular Wireless L.L.C., had argued for more time for EOTD to prove itself, but the technology hit a critical roadblock last year when Cingular Wireless said it was suspending EOTD testing and AT&T Wireless said it was reviewing its options. These two larger carriers already agreed to fines and an aggressive deployment schedule of network-based technology.
T-Mobile was forced into negotiations that allow it to not admit to being guilty of violating the FCC’s rules. The alternative would have been an enforcement action that would have labeled T-Mobile as non-compliant.
In addition to agreeing to the fine, T-Mobile agreed to a schedule that allows it nearly two years to deploy network-based technology to those PSAPs that have requested the service. If it misses these deadlines, it could face millions of dollars in additional fines.
In the meantime, T-Mobile is continuing to test network-based technology and will keep the FCC abreast of the results of the tests.
T-Mobile will also join the rest of the wireless industry in filing quarterly progress reports. When it received its waiver in 2000 (more than a year before the other nationwide carriers) T-Mobile was given a semi-annual reporting schedule that was out of sync with the rest of the industry once the other waivers were granted.
