Public Safety Groups, Industry Disagree on Wireless Location Accuracy
Carriers and public safety groups disagreed on next steps for assuring the vertical accuracy (z-axis) of wireless calls to 911. CTIA said more time and testing is needed, but public safety groups urged the FCC to get tough. In September, the Public Safety Bureau sought comment on a z-axis test bed report submitted by CTIA on behalf of the nationwide carriers. Replies were due Thursday. The FCC approved an order 5-0 in January 2015 requiring carriers to improve their performance in identifying the location of wireless calls to 911 (see 1501290066). Then-Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said at the time the FCC wasn't being tough enough.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The companies are committed to delivering dispatchable location (DL) information and “have continued to deliver on the DL commitment,” consistent with the commission’s 2015 order, CTIA said in docket 07-114. “The wireless industry is also committed to identifying an actionable Z-Axis metric for vertical location information” as a “backstop” to DL.
CTIA said tests aren’t complete. “Only barometric pressure sensor based Z-Axis technology solutions have been tested … and those solutions were either not tested in key test regions or without support for major handsets,” the group said. “New and emerging vertical location technologies … will [likely] be part of the next round of Z-Axis testing in 2019, in addition to a more complete test of available barometric pressure sensor based solutions.” These evolving technologies will include 3D Wi-Fi, CTIA said.
The National Emergency Number Association said CTIA’s z-axis accuracy recommendation of plus-or-minus 5 meters isn’t “sufficiently precise for public safety and that floor-level accuracy (±3 meters) is both necessary for public safety and feasible based on the Test Bed’s results.” NENA agreed with further testing, but the FCC needs to impose tight deadlines. “Any testing time extension granted by the Commission should be both modest and strictly enforced,” NENA said. It seeks a “firm, fast, and fair deadline” for tests “even if this means the test bed must manage its schedule so the industry can meet the Commission’s long-established deadlines.”
The National Association of State 911 Administrators agreed with NENA that the FCC needs to hold industry to a tough standard. “The data provided in the Report show that it is possible using existing technologies to achieve accuracy of less than 2 meters for 80 percent of location fixes in at least some of the test environments and morphologies,” the group commented.
AT&T stressed the importance of additional testing. It should encompass all regions, morphologies, weather conditions and devices running all "operating systems, including devices that may be provided at very low or no cost to consumers,” the carrier said. “Further z-axis solution testing [should] involve critical partners beyond the nationwide carriers, such as device manufacturers and additional technology vendors.” Polaris Wireless said technology exists for the level of accuracy sought by public safety groups.