Wireless Carriers to Fall Short of Meeting FCC E-911 Deadline

Verizon Wireless said although it expects to “come close” to the 95% penetration level, it “may not reach that milestone” by the deadline due to recent slowed growth in GPS-capable handset penetration. The company said by early 2005, the penetration rate of GPS-capable handsets was 81%, and there was “no basis to conclude that the 95% level was not achievable by year-end.” But, it said, there’s been “a consistent slowing of the monthly increase in total GPS penetration.” For example, it said, for the first half of this year, the monthly growth has ranged between 1.6% and 1.2%, compared to 2%-7% each month during 2003 and 2004, and is expected to slow further.

“The principle reason for this slowdown is that while new GPS-capable handset sales continue to be brisk, newer GPS phones are now replacing older, but nevertheless compliant, GPS-capable handsets bought by customers 2 to 3 years ago,” Verizon Wireless said: “It is thus a simple arithmetical matter that further increases in penetration will slow, since an increasing proportion of handset churn is GPS-to-GPS, which has no effect on increasing the overall penetration rate.” Another factor, the firm said, is that about 12% of its customers chose not to upgrade their equipment. Verizon Wireless has sold about 50 million GPS-capable handsets, and as of June 30, 88% of its customers use such phones.

Verizon Wireless said it deployed Phase I services to another 125 PSAPs in the 2nd quarter, for a total of 2,970 PSAPs that serve about 201 million residents. It said it deployed Phase II E911 service to an additional 189 PSAPs for a total of 1,986 PSAPs serving about 163 million residents.

Sprint, on a stand-alone basis, still expects to meet the Dec. deadline, but it said ubiquitous deployment of E- 911 services is unlikely “any time in the near future” due to “numerous factors outside of Sprint’s control.” The company said it must rely on public safety and LECs to “take the steps necessary to implement these services… The vast majority of PSAPs have not requested the deployment of either Phase I or II services.” Sprint said it will continue to encourage its end user customers to convert their older handsets to newer GPS enabled devices. The company has distributed more than 40 million GPS handsets, but said it can’t “require customers to abandon working handsets or refuse to offer service to customers that choose not to replace a handset.”

Sprint said it deployed new Phase I service to 125 new PSAPs during the 2nd quarter, for a total of 2,631 in portions of 48 states, Puerto Rico and D.C. It deployed Phase II service to 135 new PSAPs during the quarter, for a total of 1,730 PSAPs in portions of 44 states, Puerto Rico and D.C.

Nextel plans to file with the FCC by Sept. 30 a request for waiver of the 95% assisted GPS (A-GPS) handset deployment benchmark, it said in an ex parte. The company hasn’t fully recovered from an accident a year ago when a latent software problem in the electronic chips used by Motorola’s iDEN A-GPS handsets affected all A-GPS services, including transmission of location information to Phase II-capable PSAPs. Nextel projected that on a stand-alone basis it would achieve A-GPS handset penetration of about 70% of its customer base by Dec. 31. On a merged basis, it said, Sprint Nextel would likely achieve 80-85% handset penetration by year end.

“Nextel’s experience is that our customers like their phones,” Nextel told the FCC in an ex parte: “A substantial number of them choose to retain their older, non-A-GPS capable handsets, which function just as the customer desires, regardless of the benefits of A-GPS capability.” Nextel said Sprint Nextel would likely not achieve the FCC’s 95% A-GPS handset penetration requirement until Dec. 31, 2007.