Comr. Abernathy, speaking on the sidelines of the CTIA show, said...

be major issues associated with such a request,” she said. Nextel officials said here Sun. they would like the FCC to remove its ultimate deadline of 2005 for requiring 95% of wireless handsets in a carrier’s existing subscriber base be Enhanced 911 Phase 2-enabled (CD March 18 p4). They stressed that interim deadlines leading up to that date addressed future handset sales and that the 2005 date was retroactive, posing particular challenges for operators with low customer churn. “When the FCC first looked at this question of whether to allow both the handset and the network solution, at that time the carriers came in and made this commitment around the 2005 date,” she said, “they were basically saying, ‘we know that at the back end there could be problems but we commit to doing whatever it takes at the back end to reach the penetration numbers.'” Abernathy said that was what gave the Commission comfort with the handset-based approach, in addition to network solutions. With a network-based E911 solution, the entire system could come on line at a certain time, while handset-based solutions would require ultimate upgrades in handsets for each subscriber. “What they would be asking the FCC is to completely rethink the use of allowing a handset solution, as far as I know most of the carriers that have committed to handsets recognize that they need to get the handsets out in the market and there may come a day when, with the natural market churn, they'll have to go beyond that, to stimulate even greater acceptance of the handset solution,” she said. Abernathy toured the New Orleans Parish Public Safety Answering Point, which has implemented Enhanced 911 Phase 1 and has the equipment for Phase 2 location capability ready to go. The FCC recently announced an E911 Coordination Initiative to bring together various stakeholders on implementation issues, including carriers and PSAPs. “The coordination initiative is the recognition that while the FCC doesn’t have jurisdiction over, nor can we fix, every piece, we can certainly bring together all the parties that are involved and share best practices,” Abernathy said, saying that included giving ideas to cash-strapped communities on how others had solved E911 funding or equipment challenges. The initiative will examine the obligations of LECs as part of E911 and what happens when they aren’t met. “There is no question in my mind that when you look at the obligations of the wireless carriers and the wireline carriers, there we have direct regulatory oversight and we can do what needs to be done to make sure that those parties are not the ones that are the hold-up in delivering the service to the consumers,” Abernathy said.