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).

A plan released last month by the four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association, on a road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for calls to 911, got mixed reviews. Public safety and state groups commented to the FCC that it should stay the course on its earlier proposal for indoor location accuracy.

Proponents of an industry road map for improving location accuracy for wireless calls made indoors explained details of the proposal at a meeting at the FCC, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 07-114. The plan was unveiled last month by AT&T, APCO, CTIA, the National Emergency Number Association, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (see 1411190064). The meeting focused on the “formation of a test bed, dispatchable location commitments, improvements in and deployments of horizontal location technologies, steps to advance vertical location technologies providing back-up solutions for indoor calls, and metrics and deliverables,” the filing said. The industry representatives met with officials from the FCC's Disability Rights Office and the Public Safety Bureau, the filing said. AARP said in a filing that the agency should move forward on its own proposal for location accuracy rules laid out in a February NPRM (see 1402210038). "The carriers’ agreement does not provide accountability or assurance that its plan would be effective," AARP said. "The FCC’s proposed rules provide specific, fair and measurable requirements for indoor location accuracy." AT&T fired a shot at the Find Me 911 coalition and TruePosition over their arguments against the road map. “TruePosition and its fully-controlled FindMe911 coalition is at it again, spreading misinformation and ill-informed criticisms of the APCO, NENA [National Emergency Number Association], and Wireless Industry Roadmap for Improving Location Accuracy,” said Joe Marx, assistant vice president-federal regulatory, in a blog post Friday. He countered arguments that the industry proposal is based on untested technologies. “Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies have been in use for years in commercial location services, and are central to the current wireless ecosystem in ways that will drive strong incentives for further innovation and lasting relevance for years to come,” he said. “The phone companies seem to think if they repeat what is not true often enough, people will ignore the actual wording of the plan they proposed,” said Jamie Barnett, lawyer at Venable who represents the coalition. “Here is what is absolutely true: before the roadmap, the phone companies were against the FCC’s proposed rules because it would hold them accountable. Now they are for the roadmap because it will allow the phone companies to escape accountability for location accuracy. No one should be fooled by this Trojan Horse.” The road map does propose use of untested technologies, relying on creation of a "National Emergency Address Database,” he said. “Instead of enforceable and concrete benchmarks to locate callers, the phone company plan is based on process-oriented steps like ‘tests,’ ‘demonstrations,’ and ‘studies,’ coupled with nice-sounding goals for the deployment of specific, minimal-cost handset technologies that have failed in the past to provide accurate indoor locations.”

Ex-FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett sharply criticized a proposed road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for calls to 911, during a webinar Monday on behalf of the Find Me 911 Coalition. The plan was unveiled last month by APCO, AT&T, National Emergency Number Association, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (see 1411190064). The industry road map offers the best path to a relatively quick solution, said Steve Sharkey, T-Mobile senior director, Monday in a blog post.

A plan to implement and deploy improved location accuracy capability for 911 calls features a test bed, milestones based on live wireless 911 call data, and reporting metrics for live calls. The plan, released Tuesday evening, was drafted by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, and the public safety entities APCO and the National Emergency Number Association. The parties said the plan proposes to allow first responders to have a “dispatchable” location through the availability of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies (see 1411170045).

SAN FRANCISCO -- State agencies are working to address vulnerabilities in Next-Generation 911 (NG-911) and text-to-911 even as they advance deployment of the technologies, state officials said Tuesday. The April 2014 multi-state 911 outage is the latest example of the “accelerating” trend of 911 outages caused by increasingly advanced 911 technologies, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth during a panel discussion at a NARUC conference. The Bureau released a report in October that found a “preventable software error” at a 911 call processing center in Englewood, Colorado, was responsible for the outage (see 1410170057).

The largest wireless companies teamed with public safety groups on an agreement to improve 911 location accuracy indoors. The goal is for first responders to have access to a “dispatchable location” through the availability of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies, AT&T, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), Sprint and others said in a news release on CTIA's website. The agreement was supported by CTIA and FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, but criticized by groups representing state and local emergency bodies and first responders, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police.