WASHINGTON-In a report to Congress obtained by RCR Wireless News, the Federal Communications Commission told lawmakers late Wednesday that it had granted 32 whole or partial waivers for rural wireless carrier enhanced 911 Phase II obligations. The FCC denied or dismissed eight other requests.
The details of the 2005 Tier III Order are expected to be released later.
The waiver requests, which had been pending for an average of 461 days, are the first major wireless actions taken under new FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
“There are no waiver requests pending as of the filing of this report,” said the FCC. “We note that one petition for forbearance relating to the requirements of E911 service remains pending as of the filing of this report. The Tier IV Coalition filed this petition on Dec. 28, 2004.”
Martin’s FCC was under the gun to report the status of the Tier III waiver requests because last year’s 911 bill required it to make a report on Tier III wireless carriers’ E911 obligations within 90 days of the president signing the bill into law. President George W. Bush signed the Enhanced 911 bill on Dec. 22, making Wednesday the deadline for the report to Congress.
It is unclear whether the FCC will officially release the report.
The 32 waivers continue a trend of granting rural carriers relief from E911 obligations. According to the report, the FCC has granted 175 whole or partial waivers during the past nine years. The commission has denied or dismissed nine other requests.
In addition to reporting on the status of the Tier III waiver requests, the FCC also attempted to educate Congress on wireless and E911 technology and the interplay between air interface and carrier circumstances. It describes the various air interfaces and the differences among handset, network and hybrid solutions for meeting the E911 Phase II mandate. It also describes the advantages and disadvantages of each.
“In the end, there is no one solution that is necessarily better than another. Each Tier III carrier must assess its own situation in terms of geography, technology, economics and ease of implementation to determine which solution for Phase II E911 best complies with the FCC’s Phase II accuracy requirements.
E911 service is being deployed in two phases.
Phase I required carriers to supply PSAPs with a callback number and cell-site location information. The deadline was April 1, 1998.
Phase II requires more precise location information. It was supposed to be available in some areas by Oct. 1, 2001, but the FCC waived that requirement, giving each nationwide carrier a different implementation schedule. All carriers and all markets must be deployed by 2006, however. In Phase II deployments, 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.
The first trigger for both phases is a PSAP request, at which point carriers have six months to deliver location-information to a public-safety answering point.
E911 deployment officially began in 1994, but did not really get moving until more recently. The nationwide carriers are making progress but it has been more difficult for rural carriers.
Rural carriers complain that a GSM handset solution will not be available for it to meet the deadline, and a network-based solution is impractical because triangulation is often difficult because towers are placed in a “string-of-pearls” fashion along highways. Many rural carriers have said they are tied to upgrading to GSM technology due to roaming agreements.