Wireless-carrier trade associations express concern with FCC’s indoor-location proposal

For the smaller carriers that comprise most of the membership of the CCA, the issue is particularly important, because those carriers do not have tens of millions of customers across which the cost of a new technology for indoor location can be spread, Berry said.

One assurance that smaller carriers would like to have before making the investments to deploy new technology is that the PSAPs have implemented technology in their facilities to make use of any indoor-location data provided by carriers, Berry said.

“Most of our members cannot go out and embrace a mandate and provide it in their networks when no one is going to use it,” he said. “[With] text to 911 and location information, the PSAPs have to be prepared to receive it and actually use that data and information. What good is it, if the emergency responders can’t read it or see it?

“I think we’ve got a little work to do on how we put together a framework that’s on the cutting edge of technology deployment but also doesn’t come before the carriers have the ability to deliver the service. We really need to talk about the logical, realistic way to roll out a new service and whether the requirements that the FCC is considering compatible with the technology rollout for smaller carriers.”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has stressed the need for PSAPs to upgrade their capabilities to handle the new information being proposed by the commission. But CTIA’s Josef said new systems needed to accept and process the FCC’s proposed vertical data for indoor location could be expensive for 911 call centers.

“If the information is provided in ‘x’ number of feet above ground level, how does that correspond with dispatchable information for first responders?” Josef said. “Every PSAP is going to re-outfit their PSAP equipment to not only receive the Z coordinate, and they are having to overhaul all their CADs to have three-dimensional building layouts, so they can correspond that information to the proper floor and the proper suite within an apartment building. These are key questions for first responders, [and it’s] unclear how that will be addressed.”