AT&T Wireless told FCC recent report on Enhanced 911 by former Of...

“seriously antiquated” wireline infrastructure for emergency calls. Comment period on report closed Fri. AT&T Wireless said report showed wireline technical issues still needing work included timing of upgrades and how ILECs planned to recover E911 costs. Company said FCC should “take steps to ensure that the responsibilities of standards-setting bodies are clarified and that there is better specification of E911 implementation standards.” Carrier said there was no industry consensus on delivery of “location reliability” information, meaning “there is little understanding of how to interpret this information and the degree to which PSAPs should rely on it.” That means individual public safety entities are deciding independently whether such confidence factors should be delivered to public safety answering points (PSAPs). AT&T Wireless said any steps FCC took as result of report should recognize investment carriers had made in responding to E911 Phase 2 requests from PSAPs. Rural Cellular Corp. (RCC) said it was encountering rural carrier difficulties outlined in report in meeting existing accuracy standards in E911 rules. Carrier said its rural base stations weren’t densely spaced and typically were linear in their layout. While that provided good coverage to small population centers, it didn’t accommodate triangulation techniques needed to pinpoint physical location of E911 caller, RCC said. “Not only is triangulation more difficult to accomplish with fewer cells, but the percentage-based accuracy requirements are very difficult for a rural carrier to meet,” it said. Nextel described progress it had made in several markets in rolling out Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) capability in its iDEN market. Nextel said it was experiencing “extensive end-to-end connectivity problems” related to: (1) Trunking between LEC’s regional automatic location identification (ALI) database and PSAP. (2) Configuration of LEC’s selective routers and ALI databases. (3) Interface between Intrado’s wireless national ALI database and LEC’s infrastructure. Like other carriers, Nextel stressed need for flexibility in E911 rules. It agreed with point in Hatfield report that carriers with low customer turnover rates could be penalized under rules because they could be forced to absorb costs to replace obsolete handsets if enough customers didn’t naturally leave their system. Sprint said it agreed with Hatfield conclusion that FCC should stay focused on implementation of Phase 2 services and resist pressure to place new obligations on carriers. Hatfield report said creation of National 911 Program Office in proposed Dept. of Homeland Security would be helpful, but might come too late if ultimately implemented. “As a practical matter, Phase 2 service may be largely deployed by the time a new federal agency could take action,” Sprint said. It still may be helpful to smaller, underfunded jurisdictions that would request Phase 2 service at later date, carrier said.