FCC May Need to Impose Rules on Indoor Location Accuracy for Wireless Calls to 911, NENA Says
No voluntary agreement is taking shape on standards for location accuracy for 911 calls made indoors, and it may be time for the FCC to step in and regulate, commented the National Emergency Number Association. In February, amid concerns raised by commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly, the FCC proposed revised rules for all 911 calls, including standards for indoor calls (CD Feb 21 p1). Pai said proposed deadlines were “aspirational” rather than based on what carriers can realistically be expected to achieve. The FCC posted comments this week in docket 07-114.
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Under the revised standard, carriers would have to be able to locate 911 callers inside a building within 50 meters (55 yards) for 67 percent of calls within two years of the adoption of final rules and for 80 percent within five years (http://bit.ly/1lt0poY). The FCC proposed similar standards for identifying from which floor in a building an emergency call is made.
NENA said voluntary agreements can work. The group cited a 2012 agreement on texting to 911, which it had worked out with the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials and the four major carriers (CD Dec 10/12 p1). “NENA believes a few modest changes to the Commission’s proposed indoor location mandate could enable such an agreement,” NENA said (http://bit.ly/1jDdBZ1). “However, we are unable to report significant progress toward that goal.” If no voluntary agreement can be reached “it will be up to the Commission to see that it is met by force of law,” it said.
The Competitive Carriers Association and Mobile Future, at odds on many issues, found an area of agreement on rules for indoor wireless 911 location accuracy. The FCC should delay imposing rules until “a competitive number of standardized technology or set of technologies that can satisfy the standards in all environments become commercially available,” the groups said (http://bit.ly/1sJezW9). “The record reflects that the Commission’s proposed accuracy requirements are not yet uniformly achievable with existing technologies.” All four major carriers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, filed voluminous comments at the FCC making a case against implementation of rules in the timeline envisioned by the further NPRM.
Verizon said the proposed standards are not technically feasible now. “The FNPRM’s proposed indoor accuracy requirements ... would require a fundamentally different technology than what the FNPRM assumes is sufficient,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/1iONfm4). “The FNPRM, however, presumes that no corresponding fundamental changes would be needed to the underlying wireless networks and solution providers’ [radio frequency]-based network architectures in most places. That presumption is incorrect.” Verizon said that since 2008, despite “diligent efforts,” it has been able to improve the accuracy of its assisted-GPS location accuracy solution by “at most, a few (low-single digits) percentage points for outdoor calls.” But based on early tests, the FCC would mandate an improvement of 80 percent in indoor location in just two years, the carrier said.
"The much hyped new indoor location technologies have yet to pass credible testing and show that they can in fact and on a consistent basis appreciably improve indoor location accuracy,” said AT&T (http://bit.ly/1mmX1gC). “Equipment vendors are not yet in a position to offer commercially viable solutions based on those technologies or to commercially deploy these new technologies on a nationwide basis."
"To attain truly actionable indoor locations requires buy-in and development from all stakeholders -- not just wireless carriers, but also public safety, handset manufacturers, location technology vendors, mobile operating system providers, state and local governments who regulate building codes, and, perhaps most critically, premises owners,” T-Mobile said (http://bit.ly/1mmWfA8). “Smart buildings should be more than just wired -- they should also be capable of providing actionable locations to any mobile device (including Wi-Fi-only devices).” Technology isn’t available to meet the proposed location accuracy standards and once they are ready, standards will have to be developed, T-Mobile said. “Even if these solutions were ready for commercial deployment today, unless the Commission is going to require every wireless consumer to turn in their phones and buy new ones, it will take years for consumers to exchange their old handsets for new ones with additional location capabilities.”
True Position, which offers an E-911 location solution, said the FCC should impose rules as outlined in the FNPRM. “Given the critical intersection between high usage of wireless services indoors and the availability of proven technologies to locate indoor calls, there is simply no justification for putting off any longer a regulatory fix for this glaring and growing public safety problem,” True Position said (http://bit.ly/RMSV6e).