PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICIALS VOICE CONCERN ON RURAL E911 ROLLOUTS

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.) scheduled the Congressional E911 Caucus Round Table as the Senate was considering differences between a House-passed E911 bill (HR-2898) and his Senate version (S-1250). The Burns bill, which the Commerce Committee passed, would earmark $500 million a year to E911 deployment, compared with the House’s $100 million. Former NTIA Dir. Gregory Rohde, now E911 Institute exec. dir., moderated the round table. Anthony Haynes, exec. dir.-Tenn. Emergency Communications Board, expressed particular concern about the training needs of staffs at public safety answering points (PSAPs), saying Burns’s bill would provide funds for that.

Rural carriers with TDMA networks face tough technology choices because they generally only have a network-based solution for E911, although handset-based technologies work better for sparsely populated areas, Rural Cellular Corp. (RCC) Vp Beth Kohler said. She cited several markets in which RCC has deployed network-based E911 caller location solutions, saying accuracy levels needed improvement. In Minn., the company has upgraded cell sites with a network- based technology to cover 50% of the population served. In Sept., 23% of callers could be located within 100 m, another 35% within 300 m and 40% within 500-1,400 m, she said.

Many rural carriers have asked the FCC for relief from various accuracy and reliability standards for E911 Phase 2. Among the challenges cited by those serving rural areas for Phase 2 deployment are scenarios in which there’s a single tower site, making it difficult to triangulate to pinpoint wireless emergency callers. Kohler said her company was spending significant funds and was committed to E911 deployment. “I really question whether we are making the right decision in spending money on this technology that I don’t believe will work,” she said. Rural carriers have said they were forced to use network-based technologies for E911 because of a lack of commercial volume of location-capable handsets for TDMA and GSM. “I worry very much that my company is redirecting resources into an inadequate Phase 2 system when I can’t make a wireless phone call from my house.” Kohler said she would rather see rural carriers spend money on coverage first to enable basic 911 calls. A handset-based solution is better for rural carriers, she said: “Small companies can’t move handset manufacturers to produce TDMA or GSM handsets with GPS capabilities. It’s something that could happen at the federal level.” One possibility would be FCC type acceptance requirements, she said.

The challenge isn’t so much in starting E911, but in achieving accuracy locating callers that would be “meaningful,” said Evelyn Bailey, exec. dir. of the Vt. 911 program. In implementing E911 there, issues tended to be more “technical hiccups” than bigger problems, she said. In the last quarter of 2003, Bailey said only a handful of 911 calls coming in from wireless networks had Phase 2 information. “Many of them don’t come in within the accuracy requirements,” she said, which could be due in part to Vt.’s largely rural calling areas and challenging topography. Both wireless carriers and the public safety community have followed regulatory requirements to roll out the technology, she said. “Wireless Enhanced 911 is just not perfect,” Bailey said, “and it’s perhaps not going to be perfect for a while.”

Cellular South, which has rural markets in Ala., Fla., Miss. and Tenn., is upgrading its TDMA networks with next- generation CDMA technology, meaning it has a handset-based solution for E911, the carrier’s Carson Hughes said. “That didn’t in and of itself solve our problems,” he said, noting the carrier’s status as an eligible telecom carrier meant it could use universal service funds for network upgrades. One possibility to broaden handset-based solutions for E911 may be to give manufacturers a tax incentive for increasing the availability of that technology, Hughes said. He also said he was concerned about a Dec. 31, 2005, FCC deadline for 95% compliance among handsets with E911 Phase 2. Saying some Cellular South subscribers wanted to keep their analog handsets, which didn’t have a handset-based E911 solution, Hughes said the FCC also should require new handsets to comply, which would require fewer customers to replace existing equipment.

Tax advantages for carriers involving wireless E911 equipment on such factors as depreciation rules would help advance the market for both smaller and larger carriers, said Michael Anderson, technical solutions mgr. at Ericsson. “Our tax laws are biasing decisions made by larger carriers, at least for certain technologies,” he said. One possibility would be giving wireless carriers tax credits for changing out the installed base of wireless handsets to reach E911 regulatory goals, he said. Anderson said he would like to see tax laws at least remove penalties and equalize the playing field among solutions.

Several public safety officials cited concerns with LECs serving as a critical gateway for information between wireless carriers and public safety answering points (PSAPs). Richard Taylor, pres. of the National Emergency Number Assn., and Tennessee’s Haynes described E911 problems in N.C. and Tenn. involving LEC upgrades needed for automatic location information databases used by PSAPs. “It’s not that the LEC is a bad player,” Taylor said, with BellSouth, Sprint and Verizon among the local exchange carriers in N.C. to which he was referring: “When you get into especially a small rural area, it’s like pulling hen’s teeth. It’s just very, very difficult.” Haynes said funding for training was an area of particular need. Financially strapped localities spent money on E911 systems but don’t always have funds for training staff on using the new caller location information he said. “We need help,” Haynes said.