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FCC ACTS ON WIRELESS CARRIER AND PUBLIC SAFETY REQUESTS REGARDING ENHANCED
WIRELESS 911 SERVICES
Posted by WDN, October 12, 2001
The long anticipated Oct. 1 deadline for compliance with the FCC's mandate for Phase II compliance
has come and gone. The following is a summary of material issued by the FCC in response to the passing of the deadline.
Last week The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took action in response to requests from several wireless carriers and one
public safety agency regarding the timely deployment of wireless
enhanced 911 (E911) services. It conditionally approved, with certain
modifications, the compliance plans of five nationwide carriers - Nextel, Sprint,
Verizon and the GSM portions of AT&T Wireless and Cingular's networks. It
also said that the FCC Enforcement Bureau would be charged with enforcing wireless phone company deployment schedules to phase in these E911
capabilities and taking enforcement action against non-compliant companies.
In response to a request by the City of Richardson, Texas, the FCC
also amended its rules to clarify the actions that need to be taken by 911
call centers in order to make a valid request for Phase I and II E911
service.
The FCC's rules, adopted in 1996, after successful negotiation of a
Consensus Agreement among wireless carrier and public safety
representatives, were divided into two phases - - Phase I and Phase II. Phase I
rules require carriers, subject to certain conditions, to provide Public
Safety Answering Points (PSAP) with the telephone number of the originator of a 911
call and the location of the cell site or base station receiving a 911 call.
Phase II rules require wireless carriers to begin providing more precise
Automatic Location Identification (ALI), subject to certain conditions and
schedules and to complete the transition by December 31, 2005. Each carrier's
precise method of achieving E911 capability varies depending on whether they
are employing a handset or network-based system for their ALI capability.
Specifically, the Commission has taken the following actions,
approving plans to implement E911 Phase II for the six nationwide wireless
carriers (VoiceStream's implementation plan was approved in September 2000),
which together serve more than 75 percent of the subscribers in the country.
With respect to 3 companies (Nextel, Sprint, and Verizon) that
had met FCC requirements to provide a clear, detailed and enforceable plan
to phase-in its ALI capabilities, the Commission agreed to take into
account the companies' showings about equipment availability, and allow them
to implement Phase II E911 according to a modified schedule for some
of the initial 2001 and 2002 deployment milestones. It said it would
strictly adhere to enforcement of these modified plans for meeting these
alternative intermediate milestones and for completing E911 deployment by
2005.
With respect to 2 companies, (AT&T and Cingular) that submitted
E911 compliance plans for the GSM portion of their wireless networks, the
Commission provided similar relief, also conditioned on strict FCC
enforcement of their new schedules.
The Commission noted that while AT&T and Cingular had submitted
compliance plans for the TDMA portion of their networks, the timing of those
submissions did not permit Commission consideration. Accordingly,
discussions have been initiated between these carriers and FCC Enforcement
Bureau staff concerning possible consent decrees with the
Commission to resolve this compliance issue.
To track carrier compliance with the revised schedules, the FCC
imposed specific reporting requirements on the carriers regarding the
implementation
of both Phase I and Phase II of E911. Carrier Quarterly Progress
Reports will be filed starting next year on February 1st, May 1st, August
1st, and
November 1st.
The FCC will conduct an ongoing inquiry on E911 technical issues,
including evaluation of reports and submissions by technology vendors,
network
equipment and handset manufacturers and carriers concerning
technology standards issues, development of hardware and software, and
supply
conditions.
In addition to acting on the major carriers' requests, the ommission took the following actions:
In response to a request by the City of Richardson, Texas, the
FCC amended its rules to clarify the actions that need to be taken by 911
call centers
in order to make a valid request for Phase I and II E911 service.
This decision should reduce current uncertainties regarding the validity of
various
service requests by those centers. It should also help direct
resources to deploying Phase I and II capabilities in communities that in
fact are or will soon
be ready to use the information to save lives, without imposing
overly burdensome requirements on the public safety community or the local
governments that support them.
The Commission also established an additional period for carriers
other than the six nationwide carriers to submit requests for relief in
recognition of
the challenges faced by many smaller and rural carriers. Any of
these carriers who cannot comply with the Commission's E911 deployment rules
must
file a petition seeking relief by November 30, 2001, if they do not
already have such a request on file. Carriers are permitted to file jointly,
and, to the
extent they believe they are facing similar deployment issues, are
encouraged to do so. The FCC will evaluate the filings, including those
already on file,
and decide how best to address E911 compliance by these carriers as
soon as possible after this period. During this extended filing and
evaluation
period, the Commission will not initiate enforcement action under
the E911 Phase II rules against such carriers.
The FCC noted that under the plans approved today, with certain
limited exceptions, these major carriers will be required to be providing
Phase II
information to public safety answering points (PSAPS) ready to
receive and utilize the information next year so that can honor all their
valid PSAP
requests by the end of the year. Also, these carriers will achieve
complete deployment of Phase II, in full compliance with the Commission's
accuracy
standards, in all areas across the nation where 911 call centers
are ready and able to use this information by the end dates in the existing
Commission
rules - i.e., no later than December 31, 2005.
The Commission also noted that despite the substantial progress to
date, especially given the ground-breaking nature of these technologies,
much
remains to be done to achieve the FCC's fundamental goal of having
wireless 911 Phase II capabilities deployed throughout the country. It
stressed that
all necessary participants - carriers, the public safety community,
technology vendors, network equipment and handset vendors, local exchange
carriers,
and the FCC - must continue to work aggressively in the coming
months and years to ensure the promise of this new life-saving technology
becomes a
reality.
Background on Commission E911 Requirements
The Commission's wireless E911 rules seek to improve the
effectiveness and reliability of 911 services by providing emergency
services personnel with
location information that will enable them to dispatch assistance
to wireless 911 callers much more quickly. Most 911 calls from wireline
phones today
automatically provide the 911 call centers, or PSAPs, with the
address or location of the telephone from which the call is placed. By
contrast, PSAPs
do not today receive that same information on 911 calls from
wireless phones. Obtaining accurate location information for wireless calls
is a much more
difficult task given the highly mobile nature of wireless phones.
Because the deployment of final E911 solutions requires the
development of new technologies as well as coordination among public safety
agencies,
wireless carriers, technology vendors, equipment manufacturers, and
local exchange carriers, the FCC established a four-year rollout schedule of
its
Phase II requirements. The rollout of Phase II began October 1,
2001 and is to be completed by December 31, 2005. The Commission's E911 Fact
Sheet, located on the FCC webpage, provides further guidance on the
specific conditions and schedules of Phase I and II - www.fcc.gov/e911
In September 2000, recognizing the complexities inherent in the
deployment of these cutting edge technologies that require multiple parties
to take
coordinated action, the Commission provided specific guidance to
any carriers, because of their special circumstances, to seek specific
relief from its
rules in order to implement Phase II. The Commission stated it
expected any requests submitted to be specific, focused, and limited in
scope, and that
carriers should specify actions they intended to take to come into
full compliance with FCC's rules. At that time, the Commission also approved
a
specific deployment plan for VoiceStream, a nationwide GSM carrier.
The Commission received more than 70 requests from wireless
carriers seeking adjustments to the E911 Phase II deployment schedule, the
accuracy
standards, or both. All carriers seeking relief have submitted
alternative compliance plans specifying how they intend to implement Phase
II and to come
into compliance with the Commission's rules.
WDN e-911 Home
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