Upton, Pallone Want Technologically Neutral Wireless 911 Rules
With an FCC vote on wireless indoor 911 location accuracy rules expected Thursday, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Commerce Committee sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Wednesday saying the rules adopted must be technologically neutral.…
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“We have concerns that the FCC is considering rules that will lock public safety into using a single, proprietary technology for providing indoor locations,” said the letter from Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. If this is true, the agency should instead “consider solutions that can operate across multiple technologies and platforms” that are “not tethered to a single technology," they said. Wireless carriers led by CTIA have made similar arguments at the FCC. Agency officials said Wheeler already had changed his proposal on the rules to an approach closer to the road map proposed by the four national carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association (see 1501270052). The rules should be “robust, enforceable and measurable,” House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., told Wheeler in a second letter Wednesday. There should be a vertical accuracy requirement, she said, and the rules also should be “technology neutral” and carriers shouldn't have to be “limited to one technology solution.”