WASHINGTON-The Wireless Consumers Alliance Oct. 3 asked the Federal Communications Commission to confirm that its 911 strongest-signal rules require an analog phone to connect to a base station within 17 seconds rather than just assign a voice channel as manufacturers have claimed in ongoing litigation.
“The court referred these questions to the FCC to resolve a dispute between plaintiffs and defendants in the litigation. Defendants in the litigation assert that under the rules, the only thing their handsets are required to accomplish within 17 seconds is the assignment of a voice channel. Plaintiffs in the litigation contend, on the other hand, that what must be accomplished within 17 seconds under the rules is not merely the assignment of a voice channel but rather the receipt of the call at the base station and its delivery to the landline carrier,” said WCA.
WCA requests the commission to issue a declaratory ruling responding to the questions in the court’s referral by Dec. 3, the date of the next scheduled status conference in the litigation.
WCA filed several lawsuits late last year claiming that none of the 33 phones it tested met the FCC’s 911 strongest-signal rules adopted in 1999. Earlier this year, all of the cases were consolidated with the Chicago suit. In September, Judge John Grady of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said the FCC must make clear exactly what is meant by the 17-second rule. When WCA said that referring the issue to the FCC would only delay the litigation, Grady said he expected the commission could easily clarify its decision. When the manufacturers did not ask the FCC to answer Grady’s question, WCA stepped in.
The FCC gave the carriers and their manufacturer partners several options on how to implement its 1999 strongest-signal rules. Under one option, the phone must inform the caller that a 911 call has been placed by both an audible message and a message on the phone screen, and the phone must connect to the preferred carrier within 17 seconds or switch to the non-preferred carrier. All phones with an analog mode were required to comply with this rule as of Feb. 13, 2000.
The FCC’s view on the 17-second rule was thrown into doubt earlier this year when Nokia Corp. entered into a consent decree, and documents were referenced that seemed to give a different interpretation.
