WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission’s decision late last year to entertain
waiver extensions of the October 2001 date for automatic location identification rollout has mushroomed into a huge
controversy that pits wireless carriers, public-safety officials and E911 vendors against each other and threatens to
further delay the availability of emergency calling features to the nation’s 68 million mobile phone customers.
Last
week, the dispute spilled out in comments submitted to the FCC.
Wireless carriers support having a waiver option,
particularly if they decide to deploy handset-based global positioning system satellite technology instead of the
network-based solutions that federal regulators contemplated when wireless E911 Phase II rules were completed in
1997.
AirTouch Communications Inc., citing field tests by SnapTrack Inc., said the tests indicate handset-based
solutions may be capable of providing ALI with better accuracy and reliability than required by the FCC. E911 Phase II
rules require 911 mobile phone callers to be located within 410 feet 67 percent of the time.
While some carriers
views are similar to AirTouch’s, strong opposition to relaxing the Oct. 1, 2001, implementation date were voiced by the
National Emergency Number Association, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International
Inc. and the National Association of State 911 Administrators.
“The waiver guidelines risk freezing or
delaying radiolocation solutions that can meet the October 2001 deadlines and standards … and may well diminish the
ubiquity and affordability of Phase II radiolocation,” the public-safety group stated.
KSI Inc., TruePosition
Inc., Corsair Communications and SigmaOne Communications Corp., leading developers of network-based ALI
solutions, said granting waivers “will unnecessarily delay the implementation of location technology and will risk
the lives of wireless callers during the delay.”
While the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association’s
official position is technology neutrality, the controversy nonetheless has put CTIA President Thomas Wheeler in a
precarious position. CTIA, according to public-safety organizations, cut a deal with them that ties wireless carriers to a
firm Oct. 1, 2001, deadline for E911 Phase II implementation. Carriers are said to have been unhappy with Wheeler for
doing so, and appear to be breaking with public safety now that the FCC has given carriers an escape hatch.
