Deadline Extended for 911 Locater
Federal regulators on Friday gave wireless carriers up to three more years to roll out a controversial new technology that would pinpoint the location of a cell phone user dialing 911.
The 3-1 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission eased an Oct. 1 deadline the agency had imposed on the industry to begin deploying a $2-billion system that would track a mobile phone within 150 to 1,000 feet of its location.
The FCC relaxed its stance after Verizon Wireless, Nextel Communications Inc., AT&T; Wireless, Cingular Wireless and Sprint PCS said they needed more time to test the accuracy of their tracking systems. In addition, many local command centers that field 911 calls have not yet purchased equipment they need to process tracking information from the system, known as E911.
“I am disappointed and unsatisfied with the progress we have made thus far,” Michael K. Powell, chairman of the FCC, said in a statement. “It goes without saying that there is a new sense of urgency around using mobile phones as important safety devices. They have become indispensable tools for calling for help.”
The long-awaited ruling by the FCC comes just weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks ignited widespread public interest in mobile phones as safety and security devices.
Nearly 30% of all 911 calls are made from mobile phones. Last year the demand for cell phones produced sales of 50,000 devices a day.
California’s E911 upgrade is expected to cost the state at least $115 million for new hardware and other equipment over three years. But of the state’s 500 emergency call centers, only those in Los Angles County and San Francisco anticipate being ready to implement E911, possibly by Jan. 15, said Daphne Rhoe, the state’s 911 program manager.
Because of privacy concerns, consumers may not be so quick to embrace the technology. That’s because E911 is expected to enable merchants to identify when cell phone users are near their stores and target them for wireless ads.
Under the FCC’s ruling, nationwide wireless provider Nextel was given two more years--until 2004--before all of its mobile phones must be E911 compliant. Verizon Wireless was given until 2003 to meet the requirement.
Meanwhile, Sprint, which is already selling E911 phones but requested additional time to modify its wireless network for E911, was given until July to begin phasing in the technology.
The FCC was less lenient with AT&T; Wireless and Cingular Wireless, which both submitted E911 waiver requests for the biggest parts of their existing cell phone networks only weeks before the Oct. 1 deadline.
The FCC referred those waivers to its enforcement bureau, with instructions to sanction the two companies if they cannot agree to a timely deadline for E911 deployment. The sanctions could include fines of as much as $120,000 for a single violation and as much as $1.2 million for a continuing violation, an FCC official said.
AT&T; Wireless spokeswoman Alexa Graf said the company’s last-minute waiver request was submitted at the urging of public safety officials. She said the officials urged AT&T; to jettison E911 technology centered on AT&T;’s wireless network and adopt a hybrid system that places some of the tracking technology in the mobile handset.
“The FCC recognizes that there are technical obstacles with the location technologies,” Graf said. “We are hoping they look kindly [on us].”
FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, a Democrat who issued a blistering dissent to the FCC’s ruling Friday, said in an interview that the agency was not tough enough on the carriers and failed to spell out sanctions that might avert future disputes over E911 compliance.
“If we didn’t realize it before Sept. 11, we should realize it now: Wireless communications are critical to public safety,” Copps said. “It is a national priority to get E911-compliant phones into consumers’ hands as quickly as possible. But by excusing long delays, we are endangering this important objective.”
