Public Safety Offers Compromise on Wireless E-911
On the eve of an FCC vote on new rules for locating wireless E-911 callers, public safety offered carriers a compromise, which is likely to be adopted in some form by the commission Tuesday. Under the compromise, carriers would have up to five years to meet new standards based on success in locating callers at the level of public safety answering points, but carriers would also have to meet various benchmarks before that deadline.
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Sources said it would be a huge surprise if the FCC didn’t largely adopt the proposal by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials and the National Emergency Number Association. The groups made a filing at the FCC Friday and it was making the rounds on the eighth floor Monday afternoon. APCO and NENA met with commission officials last week, culminating in a meeting Thursday with Chairman Kevin Martin.
The FCC had been ready to vote on an order requiring measurement of carrier success at the PSAP level, rather than through statewide averaging, in just a year. Carriers widely complained that standard wasn’t practical and in a year all carriers would find themselves in violation of FCC rules (CD Sept 7 p1).
Under the APCO-NENA offer, carriers would have to show they can meet accuracy standards across each economic area where a carrier operates, a smaller geographic area than a state but much larger than a PSAP. Two years after the order’s release, carriers would report on general progress. By the end of year three, carriers would have to demonstrate compliance across each metropolitan statistical area and rural service area where they operate. The approach, gradually reducing the size of the geographic area, was designed to make sure that all PSAPs would benefit.
Patrick Halley, government affairs director at NENA, said the groups submitted the proposal after meetings with all five commissioners. “NENA and APCO share a desire to set the geographic area over which carriers must meet FCC 911 accuracy requirements at the PSAP level,” he said. “In establishing compliance timelines for such a rule, we believe it is important that any deadlines include meaningful and reasonable benchmarks along the way to ensure measurable progress is made on the path toward full compliance.”