FCC and Cingular Wireless entered consent decree that ends Commis...
FCC and Cingular Wireless entered consent decree that ends Commission probe into whether carrier violated Enhanced 911 Phase 2 rules. Under agreement, Cingular will pay $100,000 to U.S. Treasury and agreed to make automatic payment of $300,000 if it…
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missed first benchmark in consent decree, and up to $1.2 million starting at 3rd missed benchmark. In Oct., FCC approved E911 Phase 2 waiver requests for Nextel, Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless and GSM network portions of AT&T’s and Cingular’s plans. But at that time, agency said Cingular and AT&T had submitted compliance plans for existing TDMA portions of their networks too late for Commission to act on them and issue was referred to Enforcement Bureau. FCC hasn’t released order on pending AT&T Wireless issues. Under Cingular consent decree, carrier agreed to deploy technology that complied with Phase 2 at minimum of: (1) 1,000 cell sites by Nov. 15. (2) 2,000 cell sites with provision of Phase 2 service at all these sites by Dec. 31. (3) 4,000 cell sites with provision of Phase 2 service at all these sites by June 30, 2003. (4) 6,000 cell sites by Dec. 31, 2003, “if necessary to meet a PSAP [public safety answering point] request pending more than 6 months as of that date.” (5) 8,000 sites by June 30, 2004, if needed to meet PSAP request pending more than 6 months at that time. Cingular agreed “its classification of a PSAP request as invalid will not insulate it from enforcement action if the Commission determines that the request was valid.” Starting Aug. 1, Cingular agreed that when it submitted quarterly E911 progress reports to FCC it would outline how it would prioritize PSAP requests for E911 service and deploy Phase 2 compliant service in TDMA, AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service Networks) and TDMA/AMPS markets. “It is critically important that all the participants in our quest for full Phase 2 E911 compliance do their part to move forward in protecting American consumers,” FCC Chmn. Powell and Comrs. Abernathy, Copps and Martin said in joint statement. “For carriers, this means meeting the benchmarks and deadlines set by the Commission. For public safety answering points, this means equipping facilities so that they are prepared to receive Phase 2 information as quickly as possible. For the Commission, this means enforcing our mandates.” In July 2001, Cingular filed waiver request at FCC for E911 Phase 2 rules in which it proposed to use switch-based location technology for TDMA network. In July, Cingular withdrew part of waiver request that applied to TDMA network, resubmitting that portion in Aug., as well as compliance plan for its TDMA network. Carriers, before waiver requests, had faced Oct. 1, 2001, deadline for deploying E911 network-based technologies. Consent decree between Cingular and FCC also entails deadlines by which Cingular must provide E911 Phase 2 service to PSAPs that submit requests. For example, for valid PSAP requests received after Sept. 30, Cingular must provide Phase 2 compliant service to 50% of coverage area of those PSAPS within 6 months of receiving request and to 100% of those coverage areas within 15 months.