WASHINGTON-Congressional auditors said the deployment of wireless enhanced 911 services continues to progress, but that some states could take five more years and others may not ever fully implement the emergency location service.
“Significant progress has been made toward implementing wireless E-911 throughout the country since our November 2003 report,” said the Government Accountability Office March 10. “Three states reported that it will take more than five years to have wireless E-911 completely implemented in their states and five others said that the technology might never be fully implemented in their states.”
Forty-four states responded to the GAO survey. The study was prompted by the E-911 Act of 2004; that law created a grant program for states to deploy wireless E-911 service. Grants would be withheld from states that use money from 911 taxes collected from wireless customers to solve budget problems. The recently passed budget bill allowed for auction proceeds from the sale of digital TV spectrum to be used for E-911 grants, but that money won’t be available until at least 2008. No other money has been budgeted for federal 911 help.
Most states require wireless carriers to collect a 911 surcharge to help with the deployment of E-911-two states use universal-service funds.
However, these funds don’t always go for E-911 deployment, which is why Congress wanted to create a carrot-and-stick approach to E-911 funding
Nearly three months after its Dec. 31, 2005, deadline, the Federal Communications Commission is considering several waiver requests of its handset deadline. By that date, carriers that chose a handset-based solution to E-911 rules were to have 95 percent of their customers using location-capable handsets. None of the carriers met the deadline.
The FCC has been trickling out waiver extensions for smaller carriers, but none of the waiver requests from the nationwide carriers has been acted on.
E-911 service is being deployed in two phases. Phase I required carriers to supply public-safety answering points 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.
