FCC Seeks Broad Comments on Revised E-911 Location Accuracy Rules
The FCC Public Safety Bureau on Monday sought comment on E-911 location accuracy. These include separate agreements between Verizon Wireless and ATT and major public safety groups APCO and the National Emergency Number Association. The bureau also asked whether it should set up a broader task force on the E-911 location rules. T-Mobile and the Rural Cellular Association warned late Friday that not all carriers are ready to endorse the Verizon Wireless or AT&T agreement.
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“We… seek comment on the proposed changed accuracy requirements, including the benchmarks, limitations, and exclusions … for handset-based and network-based location technologies… as well as any alternative modifications to location accuracy requirements,” the bureau said. Comments are due 10 days after the notice appears in the Federal Register and replies seven days later.
T-Mobile and RCA urged the FCC to set up a committee on location accuracy rules like the broad-based panel that wrote rules for emergency alerts to wireless phones. AT&T and Verizon Wireless separately made arrangements with the two public safety groups at FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s urging. Officials of other carriers said at the time that those agreements were unusual in not involving broad industry discussions.
“Significant work remains to be done to evaluate whether these new proposals are a technically feasible means of achieving wireless E-911 location accuracy for carriers other than the proposing parties and whether other possible approaches may be preferable,” RCA and T-Mobile said in a filing to the FCC. Because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit remanded the issue to the FCC for further decision “it is essential that the Commission follow appropriate procedures to perform that evaluating with input from all affected parties,” they said.
RCA and T-Mobile said the other carriers’ agreements with public safety reflect timetables they do find “technically achievable,” but that may not be so “for other carriers with different network topologies or handset and network deployments.”
Todd Lantor, regulatory counsel to RCA, said the FCC was correct to seek comment. “Providing the opportunity for all proposals to be thoroughly considered and commented on is a prerequisite to the Commission’s ability to adopt well- founded rules,” he said.”