SENATE PANEL WANTS WIRELESS INDUSTRY TO ‘EXCEED’ E-911 DEADLINES
Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee members say they intend to work with wireless industry to exceed E-911 Phase 2 compliance plan deadlines. Sen. Wyden (D-Ore.) said at hearing Tues. that nation “has been forced to reorder its priorities” since Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and should serve as reminder to carriers “of the absolute critical need” to deploy location identification technology.
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FCC last week granted conditional relief to 5 of nation’s largest wireless carriers (CD Oct 9 p1) from Oct. 1 Phase 2 compliance deadline, action that was questioned by Wyden and ranking Republican Burns (Mont.). Commission granted deadline waivers, which Burns described as “a little too liberal,” to Nextel, Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless and GSM network portions of AT&T Wireless and Cingular plans. It also gave small and medium-sized companies until Nov. 30 to file waiver petitions. Wyden urged industry to “set its sights higher” by not only complying with but exceeding revised timetables set by FCC: “I am anxious to work very, very closely with the wireless industry in a partnership to exceed these deadlines.”
Wyden questioned FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Thomas Sugrue on extent to which carriers had control over speed of location technology deployment. Sugrue said Phase 2 deployment “needs to be on the top” of every carrier’s list, but manufacturers, though not subject to the FCC order, “need to speed up” distribution of location identification products: “We need to take a look at that. That seems to be a factor that is controlling progress to some degree right now.” Wyden said manufacturers declined to testify as requested by Subcommittee Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii).
Burns said that in addition to concerns over length of waivers, he wanted to know whether industry’s failure to meet Oct. 1 deadline was result of “technology or cost problem.” Sugrue said “technology and cost are somewhat interchangeable… When we adopted the [E-911] rules 5 years ago, this technology did not exist… We set the bar beyond where reality was.”
Some carriers “had been more proactive than others,” Sugrue told Inouye, who asked whether carriers were being “sufficiently aggressive” in achieving E-911 compliance. “So all are now very aggressive?” Inouye asked. “They better be,” Sugrue responded, emphasizing that FCC had warned them that failure to comply with revised timetable would result in referral to Enforcement Bureau. CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler said that although technology didn’t exist at that time, industry from beginning of proceeding had been committed to its development. He said Oct. 1 “is the starting line, not the finish line, for Phase 2… We will be compliant with the rules. Period.”
Wheeler said industry was willing to work with Administration on White House recommendation to implement “ruthless preemption,” which would give public safety access points (PSAPs) priority access to wireless networks in emergencies. However, he said such arrangement risked interfering with ability of wireless callers to get through to 911. He also said “cell broadcasts,” which would be equivalent of emergency broadcast system for wireless industry, could overwhelm networks. He also reiterated Assn.’s opposition to 45 MHz spectrum cap. He said that in response to attack on Pentagon, public safety officials often were unable to communicate with one another via radio “because spectrum is so chopped up.”
Among Wheeler’s recommendations “to make E-911 deployment a reality:” (1) Survey and inventory all PSAPs to more specifically determine extent of preparedness and compliance. (2) Establish statewide implementation plans. (3) Conduct cell site testing of location technology before rollout.