FCC approves new 911 location-accuracy rules

APCO expressed support for the FCC vote, noting that the order “substantially embraces the roadmap, including additional assurances that APCO supported and worked with its partners to achieve.”

“APCO is proud to have worked with the FCC, the wireless carriers, NENA, and other stakeholders to set a path that provides meaningful, dispatchable location information to our nation’s public safety communications professionals and first responders as they protect the life and property of our citizens,” APCO Executive Director Derek Poarch said in a prepared statement.

NENA also issued a statement on the FCC’s 911 location-accuracy action.

“Under the new rules, wireless carriers will be required, for the first time, to use the latest technology to identify the location of consumers who call 9-1-1, even when calls are placed indoors,” the statement reads. “With its emphasis on identifying a caller’s physical address, the new FCC policy will enable public-safety professionals to serve the public with greater speed, accuracy, and efficiency than ever before.”

Jamie Barnett, director of the Find Me 911 Coalition and an outspoken critic of the carriers' roadmap proposal, expressed disappointment with the FCC action.

"Unfortunately for millions of indoor 911 callers in need, the FCC has adopted the weak carrier roadmap over its own strong proposal," Barnett said in a prepared statement. "The Find Me 911 Coalition has been the strongest supporter of the commission's efforts to find wireless 911 callers indoors, but we have deep concerns that the final rule contains a catastrophic flaw, as it does not require the cell-phone companies to measure or report indoor call accuracy.

"While the rule claims to improve indoor accuracy, there appear to be no indoor-specific requirements in it, only a 'blended' indoor-outdoor standard that allows the carriers to take credit for their outdoor location performance. Thus, the phone companies can meet all of their obligations for years or longer without implementing any new technologies or finding any more indoor callers."

Barnett described the 911 location-accuracy issue "a problem of the carriers' own making" and expressed doubt that the carriers' "hollow promises" will solve it.

"Given the two-year requirements to find 40% of all callers, cell-phone carriers are now admitting they cannot find at least 60% of all wireless 911 callers today, yet this rule rests on even more promises around a complicated new and untested system," Barnett said in a prepared statement.

"While we have not yet seen the text of the rule, we believe the rule as described is a triumph of carrier rhetoric over substantive accuracy requirements."