WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission Wednesday said it would require mobile satellite service carriers to file reports regarding the implementation of its MSS 911 call center rule adopted last year.
The rule sets “forth reporting and recordkeeping requirements in connection with implementation of the MSS emergency call center requirement. The first reporting requirement is a one-time filing that MSS carriers must submit electronically prior to the effective date of the call center rule. This report would provide the FCC, the public and the public-safety community with valuable information concerning the carrier’s plans to establish an emergency call center. Call center 911 service is a new form of 911 service, and the rules require collection of call center data, including the number of calls received during a given period and the number of calls requiring forwarding to a public-safety answering point,” said the FCC. The rules require “the annual call center data reports be filed electronically and that the deadline for submission be consistent with the deadline for satellite operators’ annual satellite reports.”
MSS carriers must set up an emergency call center by Feb. 11. The annual reports will be due Oct. 15, 2005, for carriers operating in the 1.6/2.4 GHz and 2 GHz bands. The reports are to include data up to and including Sept. 30, 2005. Carriers operating in other bands will have until June 30, 2006, to file their first annual reports with information up to and including May 31, 2006.
While the FCC requires cellular and PCS carriers to file quarterly reports on the implementation of wireless enhanced 911, it does not require the kind of specific information it is now requiring of MSS operators.
The FCC indicated that it would issue future rules to deal with MSS carriers that offer land-based or ancillary terrestrial components.
In 2003, the FCC decided that MSS carriers must offer their customers a method of dialing 911 but instead of immediately requiring the implementation of E911, it asked its Network Reliability and Interoperability Committee to study the issue with the goal of transitioning MSS carriers to an automatic PSAP delivery system in the future. The commission said it will re-examine the issue once NRIC has completed its work.
