The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) convened emergency communications officials in Washington, D.C., Monday to prepare for days of meetings with members of Congress on 911-related legislation. NENA highlighted several legislative priorities that officials should discuss during their meetings, including passage of “comprehensive” federal legislation that would require multiline telecom systems (MLTS) installed in dorms, hotels and offices to provide direct-dial access to 911. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai also has pushed for direct-dial access to 911 on MLTS systems and has received voluntary commitments from most major hotel chains to implement direct-dial on their systems by the end of the year (see 1502170057). NENA also supports the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act to ensure local public safety answering points can access caller geolocation data when 911 is dialed. NENA is seeking parity of access so PSAPs can compete for federal grant funds on an equal basis with public safety agencies and wants members of Congress to discuss public safety telecom in speeches April 12-18.

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.

CTIA asked the FCC to reject arguments that the agency should effectively exclude all emergency calls that are satellite-based from being counted as indoor calls as the agency develops metrics for measuring the ability of carriers to identify the location of indoor wireless calls to 911. Industry officials view that as one of the key policy decisions that the FCC will make when it approves rules, to be voted on at Thursday’s commission meeting (see 1501130062).

As Commissioner Ajit Pai said the largest U.S. hotel chains have made progress on ensuring guests can call 911 without first dialing 9, he also criticized the lack of FCC action in dealing with the problem at its own offices. Speaking at a news conference Friday at the Marshall, Texas, police headquarters, Pai said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly discovered “something disturbing” last year. When callers using the agency’s phone system try to call 911 directly, they receive a message saying, “'Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please consult your directory and call again or ask your operator for assistance. This is a recording.'” The message should have an additional line, Pai said: “This is completely unacceptable.”

APCO and the National Emergency Number Association filed separate letters at the FCC urging the agency to approve the road map the groups worked out with CTIA and the major wireless carriers on indoor wireless location accuracy rules. The FCC is poised to vote on rules Jan. 29. The road map's release followed seven months of work, APCO said. “The Roadmap is designed to produce a dispatchable location -- defined as the ‘civic address of the calling party plus additional information such as floor, suite, apartment or similar information that may be needed to adequately identify the location of the calling party,’” APCO said. “Dispatchable location is public safety’s gold standard for indoor location accuracy.” NENA's comments agreed: “The Roadmap is the product of many months of intensive negotiations and technical analysis, and represents the most robust agreement our organization could achieve in partnership with the carriers.” TruePosition, which wants the FCC to reject the road map, criticized the revised plan filed at the FCC this week by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (see Ref:1501210004]). “APCO and NENA did not sign this latest ‘Modified Roadmap,’ but even if these organizations do support it, this alternative to the FCC’s proposed rules has not been thoroughly vetted and endorsed by the most critical participants in this rulemaking proceeding: the First Responders and Public Safety officers who desperately need accurate indoor location information for emergency 911 calls placed by wireless phones,” TruePosition said. The FCC posted the letters Thursday in docket 07-114.

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) said it formed an Emergency Location Task Force to improve location accuracy for wireless 911 calls. The task force is forming to support the goals included in the indoor location accuracy road map released in November by APCO, NENA and the top four U.S. wireless carriers (see 1412150061). The task force will focus initially on standards to support the road map commitments but also will collaborate with other organizations to “seek broader implementation and adoption of solutions, including with the Third Generation Partnership Project,” ATIS said in a Friday news release.

Rules proposed by the FCC in February aren't a viable alternative to the wireless location accuracy road map proposed by the four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association last month, said Verizon in reply comments posted in docket 07-114 Monday. Comments were due last week at the FCC (see 1412230037), and some were made public Monday. “Many Roadmap opponents erroneously presume that the NPRM’s proposed rules are technically feasible, contrary to the rulemaking record, and object to the Roadmap simply on the basis that it departs from the NPRM,” Verizon said. The carrier cautioned the FCC not to make major changes to the consensus proposal. “The Roadmap is an integrated combination of enforceable milestones that balances multiple public interest objectives, and supplementing or modifying it will undermine that careful balance,” the carrier said. T-Mobile offered a similar take in its reply comments. “The Roadmap sets into motion the necessary steps to implement and deploy a true dispatchable location solution -- something not one of the Roadmap’s critics has attempted to do and for which none of them has a proposed alternative,” T-Mobile said. NENA also urged adoption of the road map. “The record in this proceeding is replete with references to new technologies that can and will bring significant improvements to wireless location accuracy,” NENA said. “But to suggest that these benefits can somehow magically accrue to the installed base is, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, intentionally misleading.”

The industry road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for wireless calls to 911 has gathered wide support and the FCC should move quickly to incorporate key provisions into its rules, CTIA said in a filing at the commission. The four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association proposed the plan last month. “Public safety representatives and agencies from across the country eager for dispatchable location,” technology companies, members of the accessibility community and the “national carriers and wireless associations including those that represent small carriers” all support the plan, CTIA said in reply comments filed in docket 07-114, posted by the FCC Wednesday. “The Roadmap is a concrete, carefully-negotiated and -balanced solution to help deliver new and better E911 location accuracy,” CTIA said. “To be clear, however, the Roadmap is intended to function as an alternative -- not a supplement -- to the proposed standards and timetables in the Commission’s NPRM.” TruePosition, which offers an alternative solution for indoor location accuracy, however, said it's hardly a “consensus” plan. It's “opposed by the vast majority of public safety officials who have participated in this proceeding” and “there is scant evidence that the Plan would actually work,” TruePosition said. The carriers just want to “postpone fixing” a problem they caused to begin with, the company said: “The premise of the Roadmap is that if the FCC will simply leave the carriers alone they will someday fix the problem of poor indoor location capabilities for emergency 911 calls.” Officials with Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing reported on a meeting at the FCC. The FCC should look at the road map and other solutions, advocates for the group said. “We want the same capacity we had when we had the landline phones,” the officials said. “During those days, all we had to do was to dial 9-1-1, and help would come, with much success. When we call for an emergency, the first objective is for the dispatcher to get our call, and immediately know where the call came from. Then the dispatcher can send police, fire, or paramedics to the scene of the emergency.” “The Roadmap outlines a clear path to delivering first responders the necessary ‘dispatchable location’ information in an accelerated timeframe,” PCIA said in its reply comments. The plan also “leverages technologies that have been proven successful in commercial location services,” like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, “rather than proprietary technologies without a commercial track record,” the group said. The road map was “the result of tough negotiations between APCO and NENA, on the one hand, and the Carrier Signatories, on the other,” AT&T told the FCC. APCO acknowledged the complaints of some 20 public safety commenters left out of negotiations on the road map. “Since finalizing the Roadmap, APCO has reached out extensively, and will continue to do so, to describe the Roadmap to all interested stakeholders and respond to any questions,” the group said. “Further, APCO welcomes the active assistance of these groups to implement the Roadmap’s solutions to this complex problem.”

The Computer & Communications Industry Association endorsed the industry road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for wireless calls to 911, released last month by the four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association, in reply comments filed at the FCC. But as in the earlier comment round (see 1411180051), many first responders expressed concern about the plan. Replies are due Wednesday at the FCC in docket 07-114. The FCC proposed rules in a February NPRM (see 1402210038).

The FCC is unlikely to adopt the proposed industry road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for calls to 911, released last month by the four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association, without some significant tweaks, industry officials said Tuesday. The plan has been controversial, with numerous public safety groups objecting (see 1412150061). The FCC approved an NPRM proposing a different set of rules in February (see 1402210038).