After Cingular and AT&T Wireless recently shifted to alternative ...

FCC last week it suspended shipments of E-OTD infrastructure equipment. E-OTD is hybrid handset-network solution for locating wireless 911 callers. Readiness of technology has come under fire from public safety groups concerned about ability of GSM carriers to meet benchmark dates with E-OTD. In latest defection, AT&T Wireless said this week it planned to use same kind of time difference on arrival (TDOA) location technology it’s using for TDMA portion of its network on its GSM network. AT&T said it would continue some E-OTD tests. Wade was in Washington this week meeting with FCC officials. “E-OTD is a brand new technology that has the same accuracy as GPS, however at a fraction of the cost of GPS,” he said. Wade told us one of dynamics of new “core technology” such as E-OTD was that sufficient lead time was needed to roll it out in debugged version for live networks. “The other competing force is the FCC is saying, ‘you've had time, you actually have to get on now and do this,'” he said: “What AT&T essentially declared is they had run out of time.” FCC adopted consent decree with AT&T Wireless this week to resolve possible E911 violations. Agreement doesn’t require E-OTD but simply network-based location technology, freeing AT&T Wireless to use GSM version of technology it is already using for TDMA, he said: “They have chosen a technology which by their own admission they haven’t tested yet, which must be a very scary proposition to be in.” London-based CPS supplies E-OTD technology to Ericsson, Siemens, Nortel and Nokia, who recently pooled resources to do joint testing and share data. AT&T’s decision “does speak to the incredible political pressure that must exist to have that kind of decision make sense,” Wade said. AT&T Wireless spokeswoman said carrier “was confident that we have made the appropriate decision.” Wade stressed company has made significant progress since Aug. in testing E-OTD. As of Aug., company hadn’t completed testing and networks were still being brought up. “Today we have networks as per the T-Mobile filing that are operational within the specifications and therefore Cingular has a great deal more positive information to make a final decision on,” Wade said. Wade said his message to FCC over last several days has been that “despite what the popular perception is about E-OTD it is meeting 2003 [accuracy] requirements.”