Apr 1, 2005 4:48 PM

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officers (APCO) this week voted in opposition to the National Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) VII focus group’s recommendations to the FCC regarding wireless E-911.

APCO asserted that the NRIC recommendations reflected more of the business wishes of wireless carriers instead of the safety of wireless consumers calling for emergency help. Because “technological barriers fundamentally have been removed from the equation,” APCO President Elect Wanda McCarley said in a statement to NRIC that such compromises are unnecessary.

“While the carriers point fingers at public safety and cite a reluctance to negotiate, it was, in fact, members of the carrier community who were most adamant in statements of what they would and would not do,” McCarley said in her statement. “A business-driven “will not” differs greatly from a technology-driven “can not” in much the same manner as public safety’s assertion that expectations exist that cannot be set aside by even the best intentioned negotiator.”

Specifically, APCO seeks more local accountability and testing of carriers’ wireless E-911 solutions.

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