The Federal Communications Commission rejected the mobile-phone industry’s petition for regulatory relief from an already one-year-old deadline for meeting enhanced 911 handset-based location requirements, sending non-compliance cases of Sprint Nextel Corp. and other carriers to the agency’s enforcement bureau for possible fines.
The FCC said suspending the Dec. 31, 2005, deadline for carriers to achieve 95-percent penetration and devising a new compliance approach “would render meaningless the handset penetration requirement.”
Cellphone carrier associations CTIA and the Rural Cellular Association filed a joint petition seeking changes in June 2005. Carriers can comply with the E-911 rules by deploying network-based solutions or handset-based solutions. GSM carriers generally chose network solutions, while CDMA carriers opted for GPS-aided handset solutions.
The FCC said granting general relief would run counter to the commission’s case-by-case approach to analyzing E-911 waiver requests.
“Absent Phase II location data, emergency call takers and responders must expend critical time and resources questioning wireless 911 callers to determine their location, and/or searching for those callers when the callers cannot provide this information. Delay in achieving the required handset penetration level could impair the delivery of safety-of-life services to the public,” the FCC stated.
Sprint Nextel declined to comment. CTIA said it was disappointed by the FCC ruling, but would not fight it.
Rural cellular carriers said there are some factors in E-911 compliance they cannot influence.
“While the result is disappointing, RCA appreciates the thoughtful consideration given to the petition and hopes the commission will recognize, case-by-case, that some rural wireless carriers still face problems beyond their control in meeting the 95-percent penetration level,” the rural cellular trade group stated. “It is not unusual for rural carriers to have difficulty persuading customers to stop using high-power mobile units where low-power handhelds do not provide useful service area in rural areas.”
While the CTIA/RCA petition drew support from wireless carriers and state regulators-otherwise strange bedfellows-the National Emergency Number Association and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Inter-national strongly opposed blanket relief sought by carriers. The FCC sided with public-safety groups.
“We’re still looking at the orders, but it looks like the FCC agreed with the comment we filed,” said Robert Gurss, director of legal and government affairs for the APCO.
The agency itself is only now acting on waiver requests filed more than a year ago for a deadline long past.
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CARRIER-by-CARRIER assessments
Some wireless carriers did not meet the Dec. 31 E-911 Phase II handset-location deadline, but for various reasons the FCC did not refer them to enforcement for review. In responding to wireless carriers’ waiver requests, the FCC’s tone ranged from tough to downright harsh.
Verizon Wireless
The agency gave the carrier a pass on E-911 handset-location compliance, deciding not to pursue enforcement action because Verizon Wireless is expected to meet the 95-percent penetration threshold shortly. But the agency imposed reporting requirements.
Leap, QWEST, Centennial
None of the carriers met the Dec. 31, 2005, deadline but they were close. So the FCC declined to refer their cases to enforcement and directed them to keep regulators apprised of their progress.
U.S. Cellular
“USCC’s showing could not be more at odds with the waiver requirement that it ‘provide a clear path to full compliance,’ and does not establish that it will achieve compliance with the 95-percent requirement as rapidly as possible,” the FCC said. The agency imposed reporting requirements on USCC and referred the carrier’s non-compliance to the enforcement bureau.
Dobson Cellular
Dobson pointed out in its waiver request that some customers did not want to convert from CDMA to GSM phones in certain markets. The commission was persuaded enough by the carrier’s arguments that it stopped short of seeking enforcement action against the carrier.
Sprint Nextel
If it weren’t for the carrier’s iDEN phones, the carrier might not be in such hot water. Sprint Nextel asserted location-capable iDEN phones were not available until a year after CDMA handsets with that capability were introduced in October 2001, and noted the continued operation of defective iDEN phones that haven’t been upgraded or replaced. The FCC bought some of Sprint Nextel’s arguments, but not others. Onward to enforcement.
Nextel Partners
Nextel Partners will join Sprint Nextel and USCC in enforcement. The defective iDEN handset problem helped Nextel Partner’s case, but not nearly enough.
