FCC asks appeals court to dump E-911 rules

Cites public safety communities claim for more relaxed standards
RCR Wireless
August 7th, 2008

The Federal Communications Commission asked a federal appeals court to throw out enhanced 911 location accuracy rules approved last November but not yet put into effect, pointing to public safety groups' recent disclosure that they would settle for a relaxed standard.

"In light of the public safety community's support for revised rules, the commission believes that voluntary remand and vacatur of the order would serve the interests of justice," said the FCC in a filing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Late last month, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International and the National Emergency Number Association told the FCC its previous advocacy measuring wireless E-911 accuracy at public safety answering point level proved unworkable in practice and that they were to accept compliance measurements at the county level.

The FCC's E-911 location accuracy rule was appealed by the Rural Cellular Association, T-Mobile USA Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp.

In the past, the mobile phone industry has lobbied for assessing E-911 location accuracy by statewide averaging. But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin argued such a method was too lax and would not protect consumers who make emergency calls on their cellphones.

"The commission's motion is an appropriate course of action at this juncture and, for that reason, RCA did not object to the relief requested by the FCC," stated the group. "RCA looks forward to working with the commission and the public safety community to ensure that any revised E-911 location accuracy standards adopted by the Commission are well-reasoned and serve the intended purposes."

Cellular operators must regularly locate emergency callers anywhere between 50 meters and 300 meters of their actual position, depending on the type of E-911 technology they use. The FCC has fined a number of national operators in recent years for failure to meet E-911 obligations. APCO and NENA also said there is room to soften those E-911 provisions, explaining that measuring location accuracy in specific counties is particularly difficult for many wireless providers because of variations in geography and systems.

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