Public Safety Groups Lobby FCC for and Against Proposed Location Accuracy Rules
Lobbying continues for and against proposed rules requiring carriers to identify the vertical location of indoor wireless calls to 911. APCO questions whether the requirement will help first responders locate callers (see 1911130030). Officials in the office of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai say the preponderance of public safety groups support the order, set for a commissioner vote at the Nov. 22 meeting.
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“The FCC could do better for 911, first responders, and the public,” emailed APCO CEO Derek Poarch Thursday. “The FCC can greatly improve upon the draft order by requiring z-axis information to include an estimated floor and ensuring that the accuracy requirements defined in the metric translate to real-world performance. The FCC should be solving a 911 location problem.” The regulator shouldn’t “ignore the many serious limitations of its proposal, particularly with regard to the technologies the order would effectively mandate, that have been raised by APCO and others," Poarch said: "Absent revision, the draft order will not even deliver the benefits that many expect."
The International Association of Fire Chiefs reported on a meeting with aides to Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks, considered the two commissioners most likely to raise concerns next week. The z-axis data will be “actionable,” the groups said. Technologies exist that allow a 911 call center “to translate vertical data from” height above ellipsoid (HAE) to height above ground level and “emergency responders can act upon the data when it is delivered in either format by simply matching altitude information on their own equipment using an HAE-capable application, device or dedicated wearable display,” the groups said. The docket 07-114 filing posted Thursday.
But some local agencies continue to raise concerns. Kimberly Burdick, director of the Chouteau County, Montana, Sheriff’s Office 911 Communications Center, questioned how her center would use z-axis data. “I am having a hard time with the reasoning behind making my job of dispatching more difficult,” she said. “9-1-1 Communications Centers like mine do not have the resources to create and maintain indoor maps for buildings in our jurisdiction, nor should we be expected to do so.”
Other smaller agencies are also objecting. “A raw vertical estimate is of little operational value if it is relative to height above mean sea level (AMSL) or above ground level (AGL),” said Shinar Haynes, executive director of the Tarrant County, Texas, 9-1-1 District. “Emergency Communication Centers like ours simply do not have the resources to create and maintain indoor maps for buildings in our jurisdictions,” Haynes said, or “the ability to translate AMSL or AGL to a floor, or visualize a three dimensional point in space.”
Officials from other local call centers were divided. Officials from localities including Jefferson County, Colorado, and Orange County, Virginia, questioned whether the data's useful to first responders (see here and here). Harris County, Texas, supported the order.
NextNav told the FCC its vertical location technology's fully compliant with the existing and proposed privacy requirements. “NextNav’s service does not store location information for wireless handsets, it only collects air pressure offset information for the barometric pressure sensor within a handset,” NextNav said, posted Thursday: “This data does not include location information and cannot be converted into location information absent additional inputs.”
A test NextNav conducted five years ago helped win the support of some public safety groups, industry officials said. The FCC references the test in its draft order: “In-building tests that International Association of Fire Fighters conducted in July 2014 using NextNav technology showed significant improvement in search time compared to searching without any vertical location information component.”
RigNet's Jamie Barnett, former Public Safety Bureau chief, wants the rules OK'd. “The first iteration of 911 location accuracy was not as good as it could have been or would be, but it was a crucial step in saving lives,” he told us. “The 3-meter vertical threshold may not be as good as it can be in the future, but the technology exists now and it, too, will be a crucial step forward in three-dimensional location accuracy. The perfect should not be allowed to be the enemy of the good.”