Broadband funds made available through the economic stimulus package and Universal Service Fund monies could play a big role in moving public safety answering points into a new world where they have to take a growing number of VoIP calls and otherwise modernize their systems, Greg Rohde, executive director of the E911 Institute said Wednesday. Rohde spoke at an FCC summit on the future of 911 and the problems local governments face trying to keep up in an IP era.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The 800 MHz rebanding, begun with a landmark 2004 FCC order, may take years more, public safety officials said this week at APCO’s Winter Summit. Though a July commission deadline still formally applies except near national borders, many systems won’t finish this year, officials said.

Conferrees reached agreement Wednesday on an estimated $790 billion economic stimulus bill (HR-1) with more than $6 billion in funding for broadband grants. Details on specific provisions were not available at our deadline but the bill was expected to favor language on broadband that the Senate passed. The report is said to include the Senate’s non- discrimination language on network management rather than stricter House language that would have required the FCC and NTIA to come up with a definition of open access 45 days after the bill passed, according to those who saw copies of the report.

Ninety-five percent of Americans live in counties covered by phase II E911 service, up from 90 percent a year ago, the National Emergency Number Association said. Also, 90 percent of public safety answering points are now phase II capable, the NENA said. The bad news, it said, is that 20 percent of the nation’s 3,135 counties are not. Most are in rural areas, the group said. “Significant progress continues to be made,” said Brian Fontes, NENA president. “However, it is essential that we continue to expand Wireless Phase II into the areas that, in many ways, need it the most rural America.”

The National Emergency Number Association sent key House and Senate appropriators a letter Friday asking them to consider, in economic stimulus legislation, investment in technology supporting 911 and emergency communications. “There can be no more critical infrastructure than the 911 systems relied on by the public and the emergency communications systems used by those responding to emergencies,” NENA CEO Brian Fontes wrote. “Similarly, while promotion of broadband access for the general public is an important investment, it is even more important for the future of 911 and emergency communications, which will increasingly depend on high bandwidth networks to effectively prepare for, and respond to, emergencies.” Public safety’s needs include “the establishment of IP backbone networks and the application-layer software infrastructure needed to interconnect the multitude of emergency response organizations,” the letter said.

Adoption of numbers-based system as part of Universal Service Fund reform would have a negative effect on “important emergency communications services” if the fee is imposed on vehicle telematics services, such as OnStar or ATX, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association warned the FCC. Telematics companies were also at the FCC for recent meetings to ask the FCC not to impose the fee on their lines, a step proposed in all three rulemakings on USF reform now before commissioners.

The FCC should create an E-911 Technology Advisory Group, but doesn’t need to wait to complete E-911 location accuracy rules, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association said in reply comments filed at the agency. Meanwhile, T-Mobile and the Rural Cellular Association reiterated concerns that the two main proposals for E-911 location accuracy rules, worked out between AT&T and Verizon Wireless and the two public safety groups, aren’t workable for all carriers. Motorola said the objections they raise are “valid and reasonable.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology at our deadline released a report on AWS-3 interference tests conducted at the Boeing Lab in Seattle, witnessed in part by OET engineers. Industry officials said the release of the report likely means FCC Chairman Kevin Martin plans to ask commissioners to vote on AWS-3 rules as early as the Nov. 4 meeting. Industry officials were still evaluating the conclusions drawn. OET said in two key conclusions that for a desired signal level of -95 dBm or greater, an AWS-3 UMTS handset, under static conditions, “can safely operate with maximum [equivalent isotropic radiated power] of about 23 dBm/MHz without causing disruption of service to nearby AWS-1 handsets.” A WiMAX AWS-3 handset “can safely operate with an EIRP of about 33 dBm/MHz without causing disruption.” But OET noted that test conditions were not ideal since no AWS-3 handsets are yet available. Still, OET noted, interference generators of the type used in tests generally result in higher out-of-band energy levels “than would typically be produced using an actual handset.” In a Friday letter to the FCC, the National Emergency Number Association voiced public safety concerns over the risk of interference to AWS-1 incumbents posed by a free broadband service in the AWS-3 band. The letter was sent before release of OET test results. T-Mobile and others predict that AWS-3 operations will cause significant interference to AWS-1 handsets, NENA noted. “If these claims are accurate, this interference could prevent some 911 calls from being set up and delivered, as well as increasing the incidence of dropped and degraded calls,” NENA CEO Brian Fontes said. “Wireless consumers cannot be in a position in which the most important calls they make, 9-1-1 calls, are disrupted or blocked. Therefore, we encourage the Commission to take into consideration the potential impact on 911 service for consumers and public safety operations as you consider your technical rules in the AWS-3 proceeding.” “We will read the report in detail to determine if they have correctly evaluated the extensive record from multiple parties that have expressed concern about interference,” T-Mobile said in a statement. “Given the importance and complexity of these technical issues, the FCC needs to provide for sufficient time for comment on their report before any FCC action on these rules.”

The New York Police Department urged the FCC to reject E-911 location accuracy plans from AT&T and Verizon Wireless and keep rules the FCC approved in September 2007, triggering a court challenge by wireless carriers. “The accuracy of location information is critical to emergency response,” the NYPD said. “Absent a compelling reason to change the existing standards, they should be maintained.” The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a stay of the original rules in March, and in August the FCC told the court it would propose revised standards.

The nation’s major wireless carriers told the FCC that siting cell towers and other wireless facilities can take years. They filed in support of a CTIA petition asking the commission to clarify federal authority over cell towers and wireless facility siting. The petition also asks the agency to set deadlines for local governments to make decisions in siting cases. FCC officials said Tuesday action on the petition appears unlikely during the remainder of Kevin Martin’s term as chairman.