FCC grants E9-1-1 waiver requests, allows carriers delayed implementation
Acting in response to requests from several wireless carriers and one public safety agency regarding the timely deployment of wireless enhanced 9-1-1 services, the FCC has postponed the Oct. 1, 2001 deadline for beginning the implementation of Phase II wireless E9-1-1 service.
The commission has conditionally approved, with modifications, compliance plans submitted by Nextel Communications, Sprint PCS, Verizon and the GSM portions of AT&T Wireless’ and Cingular’s networks. It gave its Enforcement Bureau responsibility to act against non-compliance by these companies should they fail to meet their new deployment schedules.
Nextel, Sprint and Verizon will be required to meet some initial deployment milestones in 2001 and 2002 and to complete wireless E9-1-1 deployment by 2005. AT&T and Cingular received similar relief, but they will have to negotiate possible consent decrees with the Enforcement Bureau to resolve a current matter of non-compliance with the wireless E-9-1-1 deadline.
The FCC announced that it will inquire into E9-1-1 technical issues, including evaluation reports and submissions by vendors, network equipment and handset manufacturers and carriers. The inquiry will examine technology standards, hardware and software development and supply conditions. These are factors cited by carriers as having stood in the way of their meeting the Oct. 1, 2001 Phase II deadline.
Responding to a request from the City of Richardson, TX, the FCC clarified what actions must be taken by 9-1-1 call centers to make a valid request for Phase I and Phase II E9-1-1 service. The definition of “valid request” has played a part in disagreements among call centers, carriers and the commission.
The city had petitioned the FCC after Voicestream denied the city’s request for Phase I and Phase II service because the carrier said the city was not 100% ready to receive a Phase II signal from the carrier at the time the city made its request.
“The city told the FCC that it is fundamentally absurd to require a public service answering point to be 100% ready to receive a signal, only to wait six more months or more for the carrier to get ready,” said Joe L. Hanna. Hanna is president of Dallas-based Directions, and he consults PSAP managers regarding wireless E9-1-1 service. A retired police captain, Hanna previously headed Richardson’s 9-1-1 communications center.
“The petition told the FCC that if a city could demonstrate and document it would be in a position to receive the Phase II signal when the carrier would be ready, that should be considered to be a ‘valid request.’ In clarifying the definition of ‘valid request’ along those lines, the commission has acted with a common sense approach. It’s academic for Richardson, because its system is in place. But it’s a landmark decision for PSAPs around the country and will have an impact on a number of requests pending before the FCC,” Hanna said.
The FCC also gave other carriers until Nov. 30, 2002 to submit requests for relief, except for Voicestream, a carrier that was granted a modified deployment plan in November 2000. Voicestream had filed documents with the FCC on Monday, Oct. 1, explaining why it remains far from fulfilling the terms of its deployment plan. The FCC has not acted upon a petition filed by APCO asking for reconsideration of the relief granted to Voicestream.
“We are very disappointed that the commission found it necessary to grant waivers. However, it appears from what we know of the FCC’s action that it has taken reasonable steps to move the process forward and to ensure that Phase II will be implemented in the most expeditious manner possible,” said APCO President Glen Nash.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell said, “I am disappointed and unsatisfied with the progress we have made, thus far, on Phase II E9-1-1 rules. … Given that this service can save lives, I trust that the carriers, the manufacturers and the public safety authorities will work tirelessly to get this service to people as soon before that deadline [2005] as possible.”
FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said that she could have dissented from the commission’s action and could have claimed that the FCC had not been tough enough on the carriers, an action that she said might have cast her as a defender of public safety. But she said she chose instead to recognize the good-faith efforts of the carriers, the public safety community and the commission’s staff and support today’s FCC action.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps pointed out that many carriers have not met deadlines for deploying E9-1-1 systems and handsets, and that many manufacturers have not made equipment and software upgrades available quickly enough. He said that many public safety agencies have not secured funding for upgrades or made adequate progress toward installing new equipment. But “most importantly,” he said, the FCC only now is dealing with dozens of pending waiver requests at the last possible moment and in a way that is “not consistent with [the FCC’s] stated waiver standard.”
Copps said he would have preferred stronger language in the FCC’s compliance requirements. He would not have given relief to Nextel and Verizon, carriers that cited their reliance on Motorola for equipment that would allow them to comply and the delayed availability of the equipment.
“I believe that carriers have significant control over their vendors and can speed equipment availability through financial and contractual pressure,” Copps said. “In the end, it is the carrier’s responsibility to meet E9-1-1 responsibilities.”
FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin said, “We are told by manufacturers and suppliers that meeting today’s deadlines is a practical impossibility.” He said that he would have preferred to take more immediate enforcement measures, and he emphasized the need for strict enforcement of the revised schedules granted to the carriers in the FCC action announced this morning.
