MSS systems shouldn’t be treated as terrestrial systems as far as...
MSS systems shouldn’t be treated as terrestrial systems as far as emergency and enhanced 911 (E911) services are concerned because they don’t meet all of the same service criteria, Iridium told the FCC. “The Commission cannot assume that what…
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one [mobile satellite service (MSS)] system can do all can do,” it said. For example, using national call centers with MSS systems could “result in delays and the potential for human error,” Iridium said, and existing systems that didn’t use national centers would be required to make additional investments that changed the systems. Call centers are feasible only for a system without call- forwarding capabilities, the company said, otherwise, routing emergency calls to a number within the state where the call originated was “vastly preferable.” The deployment of E911 would be even more difficult, Iridium said, because existing MSS handsets don’t include GPS technology. The addition of new features would be costly “given the relatively low volume of users and the high investment in the user terminals,” Iridium said.