WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission late Tuesday proposed fining rural wireless provider Dobson Communications Corp. $750,000 for not providing enhanced 911 services in a timely manner.
Dobson failed to deploy E-911 Phase I to nine public-safety answering points and Phase II to 41 PSAPs, according to the FCC. The failure to deploy 911 happened at the same time Dobson was acquiring additional licenses and upgrading its network from TDMA to GSM technology, added the FCC, noting the reason for the large proposed fine.
“We conclude that Dobson has not shown that it exercised the level of diligence expected of carriers in addressing the deployment of E-911 services to warrant any mitigating. Rather, the record indicates that Dobson may not have dedicated sufficient resources and attention to E-911 implementation at a time when it was actively expanding its wireless market holdings and converting its network from TDMA to GSM technology. Moreover, it appears that many of the violations stemmed, in part, from a lack of corporate oversight of the Dobson employee charged with the important function of managing Dobson’s deployment of E-911. We also note that nine of the 50 apparent violations involved Dobson’s failure to timely provide Phase I service, which does not present the same technical challenges as Phase II deployment,” said the FCC. “Based on the egregious, continuous and repeated nature of the violation and Dobson’s ability to pay a forfeiture, we propose an aggregate forfeiture of $750,000 for Dobson’s apparent willful and repeated violations.”
Dobson said it was disappointed with the proposed fine and that it planned to meet with the FCC.
“We invested $20 million last year on 911 deployment and we are investing an amount in that ball park this year,” Warren Henry, Dobson vice president of investor relations, told RCR Wireless News. “This proposed statement covers all of the market statements and relates to mostly 2003 and 2004. The situation has been remedied.”
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 generally waived that requirement, saying that each carrier had to deploy E-911 within six months of a valid request from a PSAP.
Carriers can comply with the E-911 rules by either deploying a network-based solution or a handset-based solution. GSM carriers, like Dobson, have generally chosen a network solution, while CDMA carriers opted for the handset solution.
Meanwhile, the FCC is still considering 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 issued waivers for some Tier III carriers but has not acted on the Tier I carriers.
Congressional auditors said last month the deployment of E-911 in some states could take five more years and others may not ever fully implement the emergency-location service.
