Public safety groups strongly opposed a blanket waiver of the FCC’s Dec. 31 deadline for wireless carriers using handset-based approach to reach 95% penetration of location-capable handsets among their subscribers. But they said they would back the Commission addressing the matter case by case. The Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and NENA’s comments came in response to waver petitions by CTIA, Rural Cellular Assn. (RCA), Sprint Nextel and Alltel.

NENA defended the most recent recommendations by the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) on E-911 wireless location accuracy measurement in a letter to FCC Chmn. Martin. The letter came after the Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) last month criticized the results of the NRIC working group (CD Sept 16 p5), of which both are members. APCO told the FCC its most-recent round of negotiations with the rest of the NRIC working group failed after “the wireless carriers have been unwilling to accept an accuracy requirement other than state-level,” despite APCO’s “significant concessions.” But NENA Pres. David Jones said in the letter the working group’s new clarified recommendations “would be of great benefit to public safety.” The most recent recommendations recognize that location measurement can’t be done at a PSAP level due to technological limitations, and provide for a “clearly defined process” to monitor carriers’ progress toward PSAP-based location measurement. The recommendations also include a requirement to adhere to specific trouble resolution and mitigation procedures. Jones stressed the importance of preserving the value of the existing recommendations: “Coupled with the important elements already contained in the NRIC 1A recommendations, further clarification… can only be thought of as a great benefit to the public safety community.” Jones also said E-911 was “truly a public-private partnership in which all parties must work together in the spirit of collaboration and cooperation. All parties will not agree 100% of the time, but we cannot tolerate an adversarial mentality. We must cooperate in the overall deployment of wireless E- 911, where only 50% of the PSAPs in this country are currently able to receive Phase II wireless 911 calls.”

More than 50% of U.S. PSAPs still don’t receive wireless E-911 Phase II location information, the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) said. NENA released a report as part of a Transportation Dept. wireless deployment project. Lack of PSAP funding and deployment coordination remain the main roadblocks to Phase II implementation, NENA and public safety officials told us.

Negotiations failed between the wireless industry and public safety on E-911 wireless location accuracy rules, a public safety group told the FCC. The issue has sparked a huge fight, with public safety advocating application of the requirements at a local community level, and industry pushing for statewide application. After months of negotiations, “an impasse has been reached and the parties appear to agree that further negotiations are unlikely to reach an agreement,” said Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO).

The National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) said it launched a 20 day public review period for its VoIP E-911 Interim Solution standard (I2). The standard is aimed at enabling VoIP service providers to “deliver full E-911 service through the current E-911 infrastructure,” NENA said -- www.nena.org.

The FCC said it set up a task force with NARUC to “facilitate timely and effective enforcement of the Commission’s VoIP E911 rules.” The task force, with staff from the FCC and state PUCs, will work closely with public safety representatives including APCO and NENA, it said. “The federal and state Task Force members will look at developing educational materials to ensure that consumers understand their rights and the requirements of the FCC’s VoIP E911 order and rules and how best to expedite compliance and facilitate enforcement, where necessary,” the FCC said: “The Task Force will also compile data and share best practices.” Task force members will be named soon.

Providers are scrambling to meet a Nov. 28 deadline by which interconnected VoIP providers must offer E-911 services, panelists said Thurs. at the VoIP E-911 Solution Summit in D.C. “Because only 33.6% of American counties have phase 2 wireless,” providers will need a lot of time and money to meet the deadline, said Rick Jones of the National Emergency Numbers Assn. (NENA). The FCC order said interconnected VoIP services must transmit all 911 calls with caller location and call-back number to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), “even if through a third party or CLEC.” Many VoIP providers said they consider the FCC’s decision “aggressive.”

A consensus reached by the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) on testing and reporting Phase II E911 location accuracy (CD March 30 p2) could fall apart “if one aspect of the recommendation is changed without revisiting the entire agreement,” NENA warned the FCC. NRIC has recommended that accuracy testing be done statewide, but APCO dissented, arguing such testing should be done locally. “It is not so much that this is a weak consensus, but rather, it is carefully crafted to solve many problems through one approach, a system over a solution,” NENA said: “NENA believes that all perspectives were considered during the negotiations, and that the opponents to the recommendation were simply never willing to budge from their demand that accuracy and testing be conducted at the PSAP level.”

The National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) has started an automated testing program for TTY equipment used by the hearing impaired. The automated system, which determines if TTY equipment is working properly, is designed to help 911 centers comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Known as TTY-PASS, the system sends a 3-min. test script to the 911 operator’s TTY. The 911 call taker copies the received text into a secure website where a score is generated. To receive a passing score, the TTY must have a total character error rate of 1% or less, NENA said. The program has an annual fee of $75 per TTY which includes unlimited testing, NENA said.

The National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) cautioned against “quick-fix solutions” to meet a 120-day FCC deadline for VoIP providers to offer E-911 capability. NENA, a leader in industry standards, said it knows the 120 days is a tight deadline but “any partial solutions implemented within the 120-day timeframe which do not comply with the… open industry standards must be considered as interim methods.” The FCC E-911 order (CD June 6 p1) is “a positive step toward greater cooperation and deployment of IP-related E-911 services,” NENA said. The group is working on “Migratory 12 and next generation NG911 (13) solutions.”