Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Donny Jackson

Proposed rules won’t improve the accuracy of wireless 911 location technology.

While the most stringent FCC rules require carriers only to be accurate within 50 meters, Hixson said public safety would benefit from much more accurate location information.

“I've heard people say that wireless needs to be accurate within 4 inches,” Hixson said. “Why? Because that's the width of a wall in an apartment.”

But Hixson acknowledged that even that type of accuracy would provide only a limited benefit to first responders in dense urban environments with multistory buildings. In those situations, even pinpoint accuracy of a caller's longitude/latitude leaves response teams to determine whether the incident is occurring on the 10th floor or the 30th floor of a building.

Hixson said he believes altitude coordinates are at least three to 10 years away from being included in 911 location systems. Morgan said getting that information is only half the battle.

“If I told you the person is 45 feet in the air, how would you know what floor they're on? There are no maps of floors and insides of buildings to [let you] say, ‘Oh, they're on the third floor in suite 305,’” he said. “So even if you had the altitude, there's not much a responder could do with it until you have all the buildings mapped.”

In the meantime, public safety will continue to strive for better latitude and longitude data to make emergency responses as efficient as possible. Fontes said he questions whether the county-level measuring proposals will enhance first responders' ability to do this.

“It's not the world's best solution, but is it palatable and will it sustain legal challenge?” Fontes said. “Yes, it's palatable, and hopefully it will sustain legal challenge. And then we'll move on.”

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