FCC Wants Advice from All Aides on Making Wireless E-911 More Accurate

“It’s important that we hear from everyone… on what they feel they can and cannot do,” on E-911, said Dana Shaffer, deputy chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau. “We need to hear from [public safety answering points], from first responders, from consumers, from technology vendors, from industry.”

Robert Gurss, APCO director of legal & government affairs, encouraged quick resolution on his group’s petition seeking tougher standards for locating E-911 callers, measuring success at the public safety answering point (PSAP) level rather than through statewide averaging. The FCC sought expedited public comment on that issue, with comments to follow on other suggestions for making wireless E-911 more accurate. Sources said a decision on accuracy measurement is likely by mid- September. “We hope that the commission can push and get that PSAP issue behind everybody so that we can work on other issues,” Gurss said. “For a lot of other issues unless that issue is resolved it’s a little hard to dig deeper.”

“That’s something we're currently examining the record on and are looking forward to reaching a reasonably quick decision,” said Erika Olsen, acting wireless advisor to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. “Obviously, we did bifurcate the record.”

Bruce Gottlieb, wireless advisor to FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, said his boss supports addressing issues raised in a rulemaking on location measurement before other E-911 issues. “We are comfortable with segmenting this and biting off that piece right now.”

“Certainly it is of paramount importance that wireless E-911 service satisfies the needs of public safety personnel as well as the expectations of America’s wireless consumers,” said Angela Giancarlo, wireless advisor to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. “Commissioner McDowell is hopeful that the commercial wireless industry, technology providers and public safety entities will work closely together to move all of us ahead to quickly solve all these challenges, in a strategic, comprehensive and transparent manner,” she said.

Shaffer said the FCC must keep an open mind as technology evolves. “The question becomes how do we best ensure that when people dial 911, regardless of the technology they use, whether they're on a wireless phone landline, VoIP, that they're able to reach help and that that help is able to find them quickly and accurately,” she said.

The 800 MHz rebanding also was a major area of discussion during Wednesday’s afternoon’s panel, as it has been throughout the APCO meeting. Shaffer repeated comments by Martin and other FCC officials that the FCC was turning up the heat on all parties to complete the rebanding by next June’s deadline if at all possible. “If you're having problems with a vendor, with the [Transition Administrator], with Sprint, we have an open door and we want to hear that,” she said. “We have been very hands on.” Shaffer said the FCC was making progress on several key fronts, particularly resolving difficult border issues with Canada. On Tuesday, Martin highlighted the border issues as being some of the most difficult to resolve.

“We have gotten delegated authority for our team to begin to have discussions they need to both with Mexico and Canada to start laying foundations for the band plans that will resolve these issues,” Shaffer said. “I can tell you that almost every week I've got someone going to Canada or going to Mexico and we are making progress.”

Shaffer also said the FCC was close to release of key decisions resolving disputes between Sprint Nextel and public safety licensees on rebanding costs. “Stay tuned,” she said. “You won’t see Sprint coming back on the same issues.” Shaffer said the orders will send a clear message. “Where I come from… when someone issues an order and they tell you what to do and you've got the same question again we already gave you what’s called a clue. We are expediting and you will be seeing things rolled out and it should make things go much more quickly.”

FCC staffers provided an overview of the recently adopted 700 MHz order. Shaffer said that shortly after the order is released, she expects the bureau to release a public notice to solicit applications for the public safety broadband licensee. The public safety licensee and the D Block licensee, which is 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that carries public safety build-out requirements for the commercial spectrum holder, will negotiate a network sharing agreement that will be subject to FCC approval, she said. The FCC order adopted last week set a framework for a 700 MHz public safety/private partnership between the D block license and the licensee for the public safety broadband spectrum. Under the partnership, the commercial licensee will construct a national, interoperable broadband network to meet public safety’s needs.

Gurss noted that “from what we know, this was a very positive decision.” Gottlieb said that the required network sharing agreement between the public safety licensee and the adjacent commercial spectrum-holder will have to ensure that “public safety will have to ride along” with commercial technology advances that D Block users are able to take advantage of. In other areas, he said, the FCC will have authority to approve the network sharing agreement and will need to determine that the agreement is in the public interest. -- Howard Buskirk

APCO Notebook…

Streaming video made possible as the FCC makes 700 MHz and other new spectrum available to public safety will essentially change policing, Charlie Beck, deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department told the APCO conference Wednesday. “For police, it’s a force multiplier,” he said. “It allows us to do more and be effective with the same number of people or less people.” That’s important in a city like Los Angeles because hiring more police is expensive and the city doesn’t have nearly enough at about one officer per 400 citizens, Beck said. A key use of video in Los Angeles has been a mesh network set up by Motorola around troubled housing project Jordan Downs that links a series of surveillance cameras installed in bullet-proof boxes. Police have access to live video of the scene before they arrive, helping identify perpetrators of crimes and their victims. “In most policing you make decisions on information that is third hand,” Beck said. “Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn’t. The more volatile a situation the less likely it is to work… Being able to see a scene before you get there aids in decision making. Technology brings the ability to make decisions that are based on the most complete information possible.” Beck said in large part his city is studying how closed-circuit TV is used in the United Kingdom. “We're bringing that to American policing and making it fit the requirements of Los Angeles or any other large American city.” Among these is facial recognition technology that helps police track several hundred residents who are barred from the housing project and license plate readers that allow police to automatically scan thousands of license plats every day looking for stolen vehicles and fugitives. Major crime decreased 40 percent in Jordan Downs the first two years after cameras were installed. Homicides are down 57 percent in the area based on year-to-date statistics.