Rural carriers urged FCC Wireless Bureau to grant temporary relie...

imposed on smallest (Tier 3) wireless carriers. They are nonnationwide and had fewer than 500,000 subscribers as of year-end 2001. Rural Cellular Assn. (RCA) supported proposal that FCC forbear from enforcement action against Tier 3 carriers that couldn’t achieve precise caller location accuracy levels set out in FCC rules. RCA said small rural carriers had difficulty recovering costs for network upgrades needed to increase location accuracy capability. Such carriers have smaller subscriber base over which to spread such increased costs and have customer base that’s “particularly resistant to price hikes and surcharges,” it wrote. RCA said: “The carriers cannot afford to add base stations solely to assist triangulation methods for location accuracy, nor can they economically provide new Phase 2-capable handsets free to subscribers.” RCA said leasing and zoning challenges also made it difficult to construct additional base station capacity and handsets weren’t available for analog and TDMA systems used in rural areas. Group backed proposal by coalition that FCC forbear from enforcing existing accuracy standards in rural markets. It said that in rural areas, accuracy standard “can be significantly lower” than for urban markets and emergency callers still had good chance of pinpointing 911 caller’s location. NTCA also backed proposal, saying forbearance request “represents a reasonable solution to an expensive and ongoing E-911 deployment issue.” Point of petition is that FCC “temporarily relax” accuracy standards for smallest carriers while holding all carriers to strict implementation deadlines. Under petition, carriers still would have to comply with most E-911 responsibilities. NTCA said they would have to install Phase 2 technical solutions within 6 months of public safety answering point request or by Sept. 1, whichever was later. “The forbearance would merely permit Tier 3 carriers to deploy network-based Phase 2 solutions from existing transmitting facilities, utilizing existing cell site antenna configurations,” NTCA said. “Carriers choosing handset technology would not be required to do further enhancements to the available handset- based configuration to increase accuracy levels.” FCC’s competition goals may be protected if rural carriers can implement E-911 solutions that are “technically and economically achievable,” NTCA said. “The current rules may force rural carriers out of the wireless business altogether.”