News
Issue #2001 - 41 (October 2001)
(Updated Oct. 12, 2001)

INFRASTRUCTURE, PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Public Safety Agencies Ask FCC to Penalize Companies that Fail to Meet E911 Deadline

With October 1, 2001 deadline passed, three national public safety organizations want the Federal Communications Commission to stop granting waivers and extensions to cellular communications companies that would allow them to miss the long-mandated start date for Enhanced 911 wireless location services.

The agencies said the FCC should hit carriers that miss the deadline with "serious penalties" for noncompliance.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. -- and the heavy use of cellular networks by the public and rescue workers, including jury-rigged automatic location systems in New York -- make it difficult for the FCC to grant new waivers for a system that it first envisioned in 1996, said Jim Goerke, wireless implementation director at the National Emergency Number Association in Columbus, Ohio.

The Sept. 11 attacks have helped focus attention on the importance of a system that automatically shows the location of people who call 911 using cell phones, Goerke said, adding, "[The cellular carriers] have had a lot of time to get this together."

While the FCC hasn't indicated how it will act, analysts expect it to take a strong stand. The chances of continued leniency by the commission "are about equal to everyone being a winner in Las Vegas," said Alan Reiter, an analyst at Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing in Chevy Chase, Md.

The technology isn't perfect, but it does exist, said Reiter. The cellular industry has been engaged in "legal stalling," a tactic that won't work in the postattack world, he said.

NENA, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International Inc., and the National Association of State 911 Administrators, an affiliate of NENA, told the FCC in a filing last Friday that the terrorist attacks require it "to move as quickly as possible to implement fully accurate location capability for the nation's wireless users."

"Recent events highlight even further the need for speed in this regard," said the filing. "The commission established its rules five years ago, and the carriers and their suppliers have long known that deployment must begin on Oct. 1, 2001. The commission must stand firm on this and other deployment deadlines.''

The public safety coalition told the FCC that carriers should be penalized for failure to meet the upcoming deadline, or, if they are operating under a waiver, any revised deadline approved by the commission.

Goerke said that based on his reading of the FCC's emergency communications files, only two of the major carriers, Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless and Redmond, Wash.-based AT&T Wireless Services Inc., are even close to meeting the requirements.

Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, in Washington, said that while the cellular industry "has been working diligently for a number of years" to meet the deadline, technology to make the system work isn't yet available.

Because the technology hasn't been successfully integrated in wireless systems nationwide, a rollout by Oct. 1 is "an impossibility," Larson said.

The FCC has mandated that the carriers choose either an automatic location system that uses Global Positioning System chips in receivers enhanced by back-end processing systems or a network-based system that uses sophisticated triangulation from nearby cell towers to locate a handset.

The FCC wants carriers using a handset system to provide location accuracies to within 50 meters for 67% of all calls and accuracy to within 150 meters for 95% of calls. Carriers using a network system must provide accuracy to within 100 meters on 67% of calls and to within 300 meters for 95% of calls.

The amount of equipment that needs to be upgraded or replaced makes compliance with the FCC mandate a daunting task, Larson said.

The U.S. currently has 122 million wireless subscribers -- some of whom would need new handsets to use a handset-based location system -- and more than 104,000 cell sites that need to be upgraded, Larson said. Each cell site, which includes a tower and base-station electronics, could be hosting more than one carrier on the tower, he said.

Deployment of automatic location systems carries a financial cost. Diane McCormick, director of investor relations and a spokeswoman for Allen Telecom Inc. in Beechwood, Ohio, estimated that a nationwide rollout of location technology could cost between $1 billion and $3 billion. AT&T Wireless plans to use a network-based system provided by either Grayson Wireless, an Allen Telecom division in Forest, Va., or TruePostion Inc. in King of Prussia, Pa.

Carriers who have opted for the handset system said they face problems getting base-station equipment to upgrade their networks.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Sprint PCS Group told the FCC in a filing last Thursday that it plans to start selling GPS-enabled phones on Monday, and that it will only sell GPS-equipped phones as of Dec 31, 2002. But, Sprint said, it has run into problems with its two major equipment suppliers, Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies and Brampton, Ontario-based Nortel Networks Corp.

Sprint PCS said in its FCC filing that Nortel's delay in delivering software has been a major obstacle in meeting the commission's deadline. Lucent has developed switch software to manage and deliver location data, Sprint said, but it has also indicated the software could contain programming problems.

NENA's Goerke said he understands the problem the carriers face in upgrading their networks. But he said he also wondered if the problems and delays are a matter of timing. The FCC should use its investigatory powers to determine whether equipment problems are due to delayed orders, according to Goerke.

"If I were the government, I would fine the carriers each a million dollars a day until they comply with the FCC location mandate," said Reiter.

The industry viewpoint is that reworking wireless networks to locate a subscriber isn't simple and it is expensive. Some of the 122 million cell phone subscribers in the U.S. would need new phones to use a phone-based location system, and more than 104,000 cell sites would need to be upgraded. Industry sources estimate the costs could reach more than $1 billion.

For More Information: http://www.nena.org//tNEW; http://www.wow-com.com//tNEW

Mobileinfo Comments and Advisory: We completely and fully agree with the public safety agencies. Telecom vendors and providers cry "wolf" and come up with plenty of excuses whenever it comes to meeting fundamental safety and security requirements. Yet, they waste (or take calculated business risks) billions of dollars when it suits their profit-generation plans in the short run. We have to change our thinking and drive home to our business common sense that we must take E911 requirements seriously. Business life is as much a tradeoff between good citizenry and profit-making requirements of the shareholders. Let shareholders realize and add a few more elements to the criteria by which to measure successful outcome of a business enterprise - stability, security and legacy for our and our children's future.

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