T-Mobile, the Rural Cellular Association and the Rural Telecommun...
T-Mobile, the Rural Cellular Association and the Rural Telecommunications Group said an AT&T proposal for revised E- 911 location accuracy rules for GSM-based systems doesn’t deal with smaller carriers’s problems. More than a year ago, AT&T submitted its proposal…
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to the commission, with the support of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and the National Emergency Number Association. For smaller carriers, “continued experience confirms” they “will be able to improve accuracy performance in ‘hard-to-estimate’ outdoor areas only by transitioning to A-GPS technology,” the letter said. “A-GPS technology provides a better accuracy solution than existing network- based technologies.” The problem is that few A-GPS handsets are available for current networks, the filing said. “Fortunately, the market is driving carriers to deploy 3G as rapidly as possible, which means that 3G adoption will power the transition to A-GPS,” it said. “Rather than attempting implicitly or explicitly to prescribe A-GPS-capable handset penetration benchmarks … the Commission should consider a simpler and more easily enforced means of effectuating that transition -- requiring that all 3G handsets manufactured in or imported into the United States be A-GPS capable after a date certain.” This A-GPS handset requirement “could be accompanied by a directive that carriers, after an appropriate transition period, enable their entire network to be able to handle and to provide to [public safety answering points], GPS-based location data from an A-GPS-capable handset,” the filing said. It said requiring carriers other than AT&T to comply with the AT&T proposal would be “arbitrary and capricious” and a violation of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.