The Federal Communications Commission latest efforts to improve wireless 911 location accuracy could be hindered by a widening chasm between public-safety organizations and the mobile-phone industry over contemplated changes and timeframes for achieving new guidelines.
Already cellular carriers have taken issue with the agency’s tentative decision to require wireless carriers to meet enhanced 911 location accuracy and reliability standards at the service-area level of emergency call centers-public safety answering points-rather than at the state level. Until the FCC makes a final ruling on how to measure compliance with E-911 location accuracy requirements, it will be difficult for federal regulators, wireless operators and public-safety groups to tackle follow-on standardization and implementation issues.
“For too many years, stakeholders in the wireless E-911 issue have been distracted by circular debates regarding the appropriate geographic area in which location accuracy should be measured. Thus, APCO welcomed the commission’s tentative conclusion on PSAP-level accuracy, and now hopes that the commission will proceed quickly to put that issue behind us so that undivided attention can be focused on the more difficult issues” in the FCC proceeding, stated the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials.
The FCC may be poised to do just that at its Sept. 11 open meeting.
History of problems
E-911 service has been plagued with problems for years, initially with wireless carriers struggling to comply with FCC location accuracy requirements and PSAPs scrapping for upgrade funding. More recently, light has been shed on the growing problem of locating emergency wireless callers inside buildings and in rural areas.
The E-911 issue became a high-profile flashpoint earlier this year when it was revealed at a House hearing that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin stopped Dale Hatfield, a former telecom policy-maker who now teaches at the University of Colorado and consults with industry, from completing work on a follow-up E-911 report. Hatfield’s work found location accuracy problems to be worse than previously acknowledged by federal regulators. The in-building E-911 problem is becoming more serious because perhaps up to 50% of wireless calls are made indoors today.
Carriers have warned the FCC of unintended consequences if there is a rush to judgment on a complex issue with many moving parts. Cellphone association CTIA said it “strongly recommends that the commission defer reaching any final conclusions on the timeframe for implementation of new E-911 rules until the commission convenes an E-911 working group to vet concerns and issues and presents solutions to the commission within appropriate, achievable timeframes.”
Carrier burden
Indeed, industry groups said federal regulators could see moves to better E-911 service backfire if too heavy a burden is placed too soon on wireless carriers, particularly smaller ones operating outside big cities. “Any new standards the commission may adopt regarding location accuracy could disproportionately impact small and regional carriers,” stated the Rural Cellular Association. “RCA urges the commission to temper expectations and to consider the very real and practical limitations faced by rural carriers in their efforts to deliver accurate location information to PSAPs.”
The cellular industry is subject to a split E-911 regulatory regime today. CDMA carriers that embrace GPS-handset solutions must adhere to one set of requirements and are largely in compliance with existing FCC requirements. GSM carriers that use network-based solutions have found it challenging to meet different parameters. The FCC wants to examine whether there should be one, technology-neutral standard for wireless E-911 accuracy, an issue for which no consensus exists.
Public-safety groups acknowledge there is not a one-size-fits-all model for compliance and enforcement. “Time for compliance will vary with several factors, including the capabilities of the existing system and the topography and terrain of the individual PSAP jurisdiction or group of PSAPs,” the National Emergency Number Association told the FCC.
