WASHINGTON-Although rural wireless carriers may have special needs when deploying enhanced 911, rural public-safety answering points may need a higher percentage of the grants in proposed legislation, said Indiana State Treasurer Tim Berry.
Berry was the first witness at a hearing by the House telecommunications subcommittee on a bill that creates grants for states that do not raid E911 funds and requires the Federal Communications Commission to review the accuracy standards for rural carriers.
Rural PSAPs also have special challenges, and maybe a higher percentage of the grant money proposed in the House bill-$100 million-should be allocated for rural PSAPs, said Berry. Unfortunately, it did not appear that his argument caught the attention of any of the members of the subcommittee. Speaking to reporters following the hearing, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman, said he had not even thought about the issue.
Upton was energized about moving the bill this year, which means this month because Congress hopes to adjourn in early October, and said he would strongly oppose efforts to derail the carrot-and-stick approach where states get grants only if they do not raid subscriber E911 funds.
The E911 bill, sponsored by Reps. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), gives the FCC six months to review the accuracy standards for rural carriers.
Rural carriers-most of which chose TDMA technology for their digital networks-cannot meet the compliance requirements using their network-based solutions because they do not have an urban core to average non-compliance with compliance. Nationwide carriers take advantage of the averaging component of the law to counteract where their networks are not as built out. For rural carriers, this is more complicated because towers have been built along roads in a “string of pearls” fashion, making triangulation difficult if not impossible. Handset manufacturers backed away from an E911 solution for TDMA when the nationwide carriers began migrating off that air interface.
A Senate bill sponsored by Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) does not contain the rural provisions.
Shimkus, Eshoo, Burns and Clinton co-chair the Congressional E911 Caucus.
