GROUPS STEP UP PRESSURE ON FCC ON PENDING E911 WAIVER REQUESTS

“The tragic events of September 11 demonstrate how much Americans depend on wireless communications and the role E911 can play in times of national emergency,” House members -- 28 Democrats and one Republican -- told Powell. “We are grateful to the many communications entities for their heroic efforts in ensuring that the world’s premier communications network has continued to be available in this time of tragedy. We must harness this commitment to E911. Now is not the time for delay.” Letter is 2nd Eshoo has circulated in House on E911 in last few months. She criticized wireless industry for offering mostly “poor excuses” for not being able to meet Oct. 1 deadline (CD Sept 7 p3). Letter sent Thurs. said industry and equipment-makers had had “adequate time” to take steps needed to meet deadlines. Signatories to letter included Reps. Markey (D-Mass.), Green (D- Tex.), Gordon (D-Tenn.), Luther (D-Minn.), Rush (D-Ill.), Harman (D-Cal.), McCarthy (D-Mo.) and McKinney (D-Ga.). Lone Republican was Rep. Horn (Cal.) Some House members have taken more moderate stance on issue. Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) has asked Powell to consider negative implications of “hard” deadline for rural carriers, saying they may be at particular disadvantage because they lack same economies of scale as their larger competitors.

Consumers Union letter, written by Telecom & Internet Counsel Chris Murray and Co-Dir. Washington Office Gene Kimmelman, stressed extent to which wireless carriers had begun marketing services to compete against wireline phones. “It is our belief that it is now time to make the wireless industry live up to its promises and abide by many of the quality standards we impose or expect from wireline service, especially number portability and enhanced 911 capabilities,” letter said. Group said carriers’ contentions that technology wasn’t yet ready or available for E911 were “unsupported… It is particularly outrageous that these companies are dragging their feet at a time of national emergency, when pinpointing cellphone location has proved so important.”

In other policy areas, group argued that: (1) Verizon Wireless request for forbearance of local number portability requirements (CD Sept 26 p5) was not in public interest. “The Commission should not abide the present dawdling of wireless carriers,” Consumers Union said. Number portability will achieve same consumer gains on wireless side, such as low switching costs, as it has in wireline industry. (2) FCC must maintain 45 MHz spectrum cap now in place in most markets “to maintain vigorous competition for wireless services.” Industry arguments that rollout of 3G services would be stymied without spectrum cap relief was “mere 3G puffery.” In current economic downturn, carriers are likely to only use additional spectrum to offer accommodate voice traffic, which has provided profit record, letter said. Group said lifting cap wouldn’t help carriers patch coverage gaps in their network.

Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO), National Emergency Number Assn. and National Assn. of State Nine One One Administrators told FCC in recent ex parte filing that urgency of E911 work had “increased a thousandfold in the face of the recent terrorist attacks on our own soil.” Public safety groups warned Commission in Sept. 21 filing: “We no longer have the luxury of time.” It noted that President Bush had issued alerts about possible future acts of terrorism in U.S. “Of one thing we can be certain: Use of wireless phones will play a vital role in reporting and responding to incidents as they occur, and in preventing incidents before they occur. 911 operators will be the first to take the calls.” In responding to waiver requests, groups asked FCC to: (1) Not grant waiver to carrier that didn’t propose location technology solution that meets “or comes very close to meeting” accuracy requirements. Groups praised AT&T Wireless for recent revision of its waiver request (CD Sept 24 p4) for Phase 2 on its TDMA network. (2) Not grant relief to carriers “that caused delay.” If delays in deployment are due to carriers’ failing to order equipment or software on time, they should be held accountable. (3) Impose “serious penalties” for failing to meet benchmarks.

APCO and other public safety groups also highlighted concerns on role of LECs that they said played important role in closing connection among wireless subscribers, carriers, databases and public safety answering points. “Now that various elements of wireless E911 are finally falling into place, it is becoming increasingly evident that LEC cooperation remains a missing link in some situations,” filing said. FCC and state regulators should address this “quickly and decisively.”

Carriers with E911 Phase 2 waiver requests pending before FCC include Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Nextel, Western Wireless, Cingular and others. Cingular told FCC Wed. in ex parte filing that “at present there is a serious question whether any technology is fully compliant.” Cingular expressed concern that it would be “unreasonable” for FCC to find that compliance with E911 rules can only be determined after full-scale deployment. “To require a carrier, such as Cingular, to spend millions of dollars deploying a technology only to have the Commission opine after the fact that the technology is not compliant and then require the carrier (as APCO suggests) to start again from scratch is not viable,” Cingular said. Carrier told FCC that because it doesn’t manufacture location technology equipment, vendor statements remain its only basis for assessing whether solution is compliant until field trials can be completed. Carrier also stressed that it has been working for years on Phase 2 solution but has been unable to identify one that could be deployed before Oct. 1.