FCC wireless 911 location-accuracy rules should demand accountability, long-term improvement

There are some excellent concepts in the carriers’ proposal that need to be included in new location-accuracy rules, including:

(1)     Aim for dispatchable location: As the carriers’ proposal notes, the long-term goal is to have wireless devices deliver a dispatchable civic address, so public safety knows where to deploy resources when an emergency call is made. While there is consensus that this should be the goal, there is considerable debate about how—and when—the FCC can expect to reach this goal.

(2)     Leverage new indoor wireless infrastructure: As mentioned in this space before, commercial wireless systems are evolving rapidly to meet customers’ almost-insatiable demand for bandwidth and location-based service virtually everywhere, indoors or outdoors. This requires more sites. Outdoors, this means smaller cells with sites that are less conspicuous. Indoors, the plan is to deploy a combination of Wi-Fi systems, small cells and Bluetooth beacons in staggering numbers. Adopting rules that do not take advantage of this new indoor infrastructure would be foolhardy, although there are questions about deployment times.

(3)     Establish a location-accuracy testbed: Of course, when new technology is developed, it needs to be tested first, especially for something as important as location of a 911 caller. An ongoing testbed is needed, particularly as the Internet of Things vision approaches reality.

(4)     Increased satellite usage: Currently, carriers depend primarily on GPS—the U.S. satellite system—for outdoor location service. The carriers’ proposal calls for the Russian satellite system GLONASS to be integrated, as well as others when they become available. This will not do much for the indoor-location issue—nobody’s satellite works well inside buildings—but leveraging additional satellites should improve outdoor location information. Some have expressed political concerns about using a Russian system, but it is hard to imagine a scenario in which the Russian government would say, ‘Let’s mess with our satellites, so they give bad location readings to the U.S. 911 system,’ particularly when GPS is still being used.

Critics of the carriers’ roadmap note that the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth location technology has not been subject to the independent testing in the same manner as solutions from location-specific companies like NextNav. Ensuring that whatever technology being deployed works properly is critical, and that assessment should be done quickly, so implementation can be executed as soon as possible.