911 Wireless Location Accuracy Rules Approved 5-0 Despite Clyburn Concerns
The FCC voted 5-0 to approve rules requiring carriers to provide data to 911 call centers on wireless calls made indoors. The order changed significantly since first circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler three weeks ago, putting more emphasis on the concept of dispatchable location as proposed in the industry-public safety road map, industry and FCC officials said. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn expressed concerns that the order was weaker than rules proposed by the FCC in a February NPRM and said she could only concur.
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In a second key change, which had been sought by carriers, the rules don't require that calls that go over GPS or any satellite-based technology need to be counted separately from calls that use a non-satellite technology (see 1501130062). The FCC said in a Thursday news release that the original location accuracy rules date to 1996 and hadn’t had a major update since 2010.
The order is expected to be released in the next few days, FCC officials said. The rules permit two alternatives for locating callers -- using coordinates including the elevation of the caller, or a location based on a dispatchable address, officials said. Within two years, carriers must be able to provide a location with 50 meters of the call for 40 percent of callers. The standard ramps up, and after six years, carriers are required to be able to meet the 50-meter requirement for 80 percent of all wireless calls. Smaller carriers are allowed to extend to five- and six-year deadlines depending on the speed at which they are able to add voice-over-LTE to their networks, officials said.
“We are establishing a floor, not a ceiling,” Wheeler said. “It is a beginning, not an end.” If Uber can consistently find a user’s house via an app,” he said, a 911 call center’s fix on a caller's location shouldn’t be “within half a football field 80 percent of the time.”
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel had been a key player behind the scenes on the order, seeking changes to the original Wheeler proposal, industry and agency officials said (see 1501270052). Rosenworcel said the order took “a lot of work and wrangling” to get to the form approved Thursday.
Rosenworcel said that before the FCC approved the new rules, its regulations were “stranded in the calling practices of the last century.” The FCC had location accuracy rules for all wireline calls, but only for wireless calls made outdoors, she said. “At long last, we take steps to fix this problem and close this gap,” she said. “We bring indoor dispatchable location into our wireless location accuracy policies. This is big and it is bound to save lives.”
Commissioner Ajit Pai said the rules proposed by the FCC in February's NPRM were “impractical and unrealistic.” But Pai said he was pleased with the changes to the draft order since it circulated. “I appreciate the changes that have been made and would like to thank Commissioner Rosenworcel in particular for helping steer the item down a better path,” Pai said. “I am pleased too that the order now makes it clear that nothing in our decision authorizes the use of any non-U.S. satellite system in conjunction with the 911 system.”
Clyburn expressed particular concerns about how the rules would help people living in densely populated urban areas. She said she would have preferred an order based on the February NPRM (see 1402210038). “It had stronger 911 location accuracy requirements at the two- and three-year benchmarks than what we are adopting today and yes, I would have preferred the rules that we originally proposed,” she said.
Commissioner Mike O’Rielly voted for the item but expressed concern the data could be used by government agencies to pinpoint the location of law-abiding citizens. “While this is not the direct responsibility of the commission, I trust that appropriate oversight, including congressional involvement, will seek to ensure that this information is not used or abused to the detriment of the American people,” he said. “Improving location accuracy for wireless 911 callers should not happen at the expense of greater exposure to surveillance or monitoring by government officials.”
The FindMe Coalition blasted the order in a news release. “Unfortunately for millions of indoor 911 callers in need, the FCC has adopted the weak carrier roadmap over its own strong proposal,” the group said.
Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Communications & Technology Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said he needs to see the order before providing definitive comment. “From what I heard at the FCC meeting today, it appears the order, while not perfect, probably accomplishes much of what the public safety community has been asking for,” he said. NENA CEO Brian Fontes told us his group is very pleased with the order: “This moves 911 location into the 21st century. I think this is a huge step in the right direction.”
“By embracing these strong milestones and encouraging constructive collaboration between the public safety community and the wireless sector, the Commission’s new rules reinforce a shared commitment to improving location accuracy to ensure the most efficient dispatch of first responders in cases of emergency,” said Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter in a written statement. CTIA believes the order "embraces the commitments made by carriers and public safety, including quantifiable deployment metrics and deadlines to assure widespread improvements for first responders,” said President Meredith Baker.