The four largest U.S. wireless carriers and two public safety industry groups have committed to a voluntary agreement to provide text-to-911 services to emergency call centers around the country by 2014.
AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless have all agreed to participate in...
The House this week plans to vote on a massive economic stimulus bill with $1 billion earmarked for wireless broadband grants, but the smallest national wireless provider and a leading public-safety group would like to see other provisions added.T-Mobile USA Inc., among other things,...
The Federal Communications Commission tentatively concluded that nationwide broadband operations in the advanced wireless services-3 band will not interfere with T-Mobile USA Inc. and others in the advanced wireless services-1 band, possibly signaling the agency is close to issuing final rules for an auction...
The Federal Communications Commission asked a federal appeals court to throw out enhanced 911 location accuracy rules approved last November but not yet put into effect, pointing to public safety groups' recent disclosure that they would settle for a relaxed standard."In light of the...
Public-safety groups, which last year successively persuaded federal regulators to adopt a strict enhanced 911 location accuracy standard over the objections of wireless providers, now say the rule is unworkable and should be replaced with a more lenient one. They also told the Federal...
A dispute has erupted over whether a federal appeals court should delay ruling on the wireless industry's challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's backup power rule until Bush administration budget officials complete their review of controversial guidelines designed to respond to communications failures from...
THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION SET A JUNE 20 DEADLINE for public comment on D-Block revisions, but already the agency has begun receiving suggestions from industry, public safety and academics. Most filings focus on how D-Block rules can be restructured to attract bidders capable of...
The Federal Communications Commission could be forced to back off the backup power rule. Two members of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voiced serious doubts about whether the FCC had authority to mandate...
The National Emergency Number Association named Brian Fontes as its chief executive officer, a newly created position in the organization."Brian is known and respected throughout our industry," said NENA President Jason Barbour. "His varied and unique skill sets make him the right man for...
Public-safety groups scrambled to salvage support for a private-sector funded national wireless broadband network shared by first responders and a commercial entity, following calls by some House Republicans to abandon in the 700 MHz D-Block re-auction that they consider a fatally flawed experiment."APCO International...
The mobile-phone industry told a U.S. appeals court the Federal Communications Commission exceeded its statutory powers in mandating the eight-hour backup power rule for cell sites as part of an otherwise legally flawed rulemaking."By promulgating a sweeping mandate far beyond its regulatory authority without...
The Federal Communications Commission is coming under increasing pressure from the wireless industry to put on hold new enhanced 911 location accuracy guidelines, with court appeals virtually guaranteed.On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FCC clarified that wireless service...
WHILE THE 700 MHZ OPEN-ACCESS COURT BATTLE ESCALATES into a brawl among major stakeholders eyeing the upcoming auction, the public-safety community is methodically laying the foundation to partner with the winner of a national wireless license in an unprecedented experiment of high stakes for...
The Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corp. filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission seeking to become the licensee that partners with the winning bidder of the commercial-first responder broadband wireless license in next year's 700 MHz auction."The PSST is moving ahead with all...
The Public Safety Spectrum Trust selected Cyren Call Communications Corp. as its advisor for negotiations with the eventual winner of the commercial-first responder broadband license in the 700 MHz auction, set to begin Jan. 16. "Although we have selected a single advisor, I'm hopeful...
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...
The Federal Communications Commission agreed to improve the accuracy of locating wireless and Voice-over-Internet Protocol emergency callers, but concerns were raised over whether the agency's long-awaited re-examination of the enhanced 911 issue inadvertently could make matters worse if cellular carriers cannot technologically comply with...
The Senate last week approved legislation to improve public-safety communications interoperability and location-based wireless 911, two vital homeland security components that remain weak links more than five years after the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the deadly, destructive hurricanes of 2005. The bill, which...
Senate lawmakers blasted Bush administration policy-makers over the implementation of a $43.5 million matching grant program to upgrade emergency dispatch centers so they can receive and process enhanced 911 location data from mobile phones.The Enhanced 911 Act, signed into law in December 2004, directed...
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...
WASHINGTON-Cyren Call Communications Inc. believes it can convince Wall Street to pledge at least $5 billion for the U.S. Treasury in an effort to get around congressional opposition to its proposal to set aside 30 megahertz of spectrum in the upper 700 MHz band...
WASHINGTON—The National Emergency Number Association has added its voice to the chorus calling for a national debate on a proposal to set aside 30 megahertz of spectrum in the upper 700 MHz band for a next-generation public-safety network that the wireless industry would build...
WASHINGTON-Public-safety answering points serving more than 75 percent of the population are able to receive location information from mobile-phone callers, according to statistics from the National Emergency Number Association. "The PSAP statistics translate to 88 percent receiving Phase I calls and 76 percent covered...
WASHINGTON—Public-safety answering points serving more than 75 percent of the population are now able to receive location information from mobile-phone callers, according to statistics from the National Emergency Number Association. "The PSAP statistics translate to 88 percent receiving Phase I calls and 76 percent...
