FCC clarified that 911 call-forwarding rule didn’t preclude wireless carriers from blocking fraudulent 911 calls from nonservice initialized phones under state and local law enforcement procedures. Commission said its determination to require forwarding of all wireless 911 calls without regard to caller’s service subscription status was intended to enable authentic emergency calls, not fraudulent or abusive calls. It said where public safety answering point (PSAP) had identified handset that was transmitting fraudulent 911 calls and made request to wireless carrier to block 911 calls from that handset in accordance with state and local laws, carrier’s compliance didn’t violate Sec. 20.18(b). FCC Comr. Martin said: “Harassing 911 calls from noninitialized phones are a significant problem for PSAPs, causing a disruption of emergency telephone services and a waste of public safety resources… This public notice should put an end to… confusion and make clear that PSAPs and carriers may block harassing 911 calls.”

Despite funding uncertainty for fiscal 2003, National Communications System (NCS) still plans to begin national rollout of initial operating capability of wireless priority service by year-end, Govt. Emergency Telephone Service (GETS) Dir. John Graves said Wed. He told Telecom Service Priority (TSP) Oversight Committee meeting at NCS hq in Arlington, Va., that 2003 capability for service designed to give priority to national security personnel and responders in emergencies still was on track because $208 million set aside to get program running was “any-year” money. Uncertainty involves $73 million sought by Bush Administration after Sept. 11 attacks that House and Senate conferees recently zeroed out of defense appropriations bill (CD Oct 15 p1). For initial capability, NCS is close to signing contract with T-Mobile USA and with Cingular Wireless, Graves said.

SBC/Ameritech told FCC that state court in Mich. had set hearing for Dec. 16 to make final ruling on preliminary injunction that ordered company not to file tariff connected with Enhanced 911 services. In meantime, Ameritech plans to offer “interim contract” to public safety answering points (PSAPs). SBC/Ameritech recently told FCC that 5th Judicial Circuit Court in Mich. had issued temporary restraining order that barred carrier from filing wireless E911 tariff. Company said it planned to file tariff in Mich. that would let it recover costs from PSAPs for Phase 2 of E911. Ameritech previously told FCC it had to ask Mich. PSC for authority to charge local 911 dispatch centers for every 911 call placed from cellphone. Company planned to use fee to recoup costs of implementing wireless E911 location capability. Mich. Communications Dirs. Assn. and local dispatch authority filed complaint and motion for temporary restraining order against Ameritech in Aug. Mich. Circuit Court recently entered preliminary injunction that ordered company not to file its retail tariff or carrier-to-carrier tariff with state PSC, Ameritech told FCC. “SBC Ameritech expects the judge to allow SBC Ameritech to recover its costs either through the current Michigan E911 fund or through a tariff,” filing said.

T-Mobile USA and other members of E-OTD (Enhanced Observed Time Difference of Arrival) Industry Forum told FCC that technology should meet 2003 requirements for Enhanced 911 caller location requirements. Bullish outlook by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, Siemens and T-Mobile on state of E-OTD development came as Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless said they were exploring other options to meet E911 deadlines. Members of E-OTD group touted “unprecedented cooperation” of industry on technology development and said it already was meeting Phase 2 accuracy requirements for 2002. They said trials conducted by forum in Sept. and Oct. produced results that met FCC’s accuracy requirements of locating callers within 100 meters and 300 meters in 2002. Based on those results and plans for next year, E-OTD “should meet the Commission’s 2003 requirements,” it said. Recent report by former FCC Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Dale Hatfield on status of E911 deployment said recent carrier reports to FCC reflected some of uncertainty over ability of E-OTD ultimately to meet E911 accuracy requirements by certain deadlines. He urged FCC to closely monitor situation so it wouldn’t be forced to relax accuracy requirements for certain carriers. T-Mobile and others told FCC in Mon. filing that carriers’ “biggest concern” of placement of antennas on towers and new base stations being required in only “exceptional cases” had been addressed. Speed-to-market issues also have been addressed and “analysis tools are catching up,” they said. Among other advances they cited were fact that location messaging units now essentially were “plug and play.” E-OTD measures relative time of arrival of signals from several base transceiver stations (BTS) to ascertain caller location. Filing outlined plans for accuracy improvements that would enhance BTS clock stability and mitigate interference, “which are network- related issues and which do not reflect fundamental limitations in E-OTD technology.” Forum also told FCC that members had studied options for increasing number of visible base stations that E-OTD could use, “which may significantly improve accuracy in rural environments.”

AT&T Wireless placed additional order with Grayson Wireless for Enhanced 911 wireless caller location technology that carrier already had been using with its TDMA network, terms not announced. Additional systems will be used for digital dual mode GSM/TDMA network for rollout in parts of AT&T’s network, Grayson said. FCC recently approved $2 million consent decree with AT&T Wireless to resolve possible violation of E911 Phase 2 rules. Agreement doesn’t require AT&T Wireless to use Enhanced Observed Time Difference of Arrival (E-OTD) technology and carrier has said it was planning to use another caller-location system. E-OTD recently has come under criticism from public safety and other groups as beset with problems that they said were slowing E911 rollouts for GSM carriers. “This new order will provide to AT&T Wireless an FCC-compliant network-based dual- mode, dual-band 911 caller location technology that is compatible both with AT&T Wireless’s existing TDMA system and with the GSM network-overlay systems AT&T Wireless is currently installing,” Grayson said. AT&T Wireless has said it would continue to test E-OTD technology in some markets but because consent decree didn’t stipulate particular network-based location technology, it was free to use alternatives to meet deployment deadlines. Grayson said its Geometrix caller location system for E911 calls also could work with customers and roamers who used analog networks.

Group of wireless carriers, reiterating concerns about LEC provision of Enhanced 911 (E911) automatic location information (ALI) services, asked FCC in filing this week to: (1) Amend its rules to state that carriers shall begin delivering E911 Phase 2 data within 6 months of request by public safety answering point (PSAP) or 120 days after PSAP is capable of receiving or using Phase 2 data, “whichever is later.” (2) Confirm that earlier FCC decision on King County, Wash., request for clarification allocated ALI costs to PSAPs. (3) Order LECs to finish ALI database upgrades “without further delay.” (4) Clarify that LEC provisioning delays “constitute a defense to any enforcement actions taken against a wireless carrier for failure to meet Phase 2 deadlines.” Presentation to FCC Wireless Bureau was made by CTIA, Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, Nextel, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Alltel and Western Wireless. “Although wireless carriers have spent countless hours and spent millions of dollars in an effort to meet the Phase 2 deadlines, LEC delays and charges will likely cause many wireless carriers to miss Phase 2 implementation deadlines,” filing said.

Zoning challenges that remain for wireless tower build- outs include complying in some cases with local rules that limit structures to heights that may not be tall enough to meet colocation mandates, panelists said at PCIA zoning conference Wed. Some communities have policy that requires new towers to accommodate colocation but “require towers to be less than 80 feet in height,” PCIA Pres. Jay Kitchen said at one-day conference in Alexandria, Va. “At a minimum, that means the colocation opportunity is limited to one other carrier.” In other cases, zoning rules don’t address trend of tower companies’ focusing less on building new sites and more on redeveloping existing inventory that can predate local laws, said Liz Hill, corporate assoc. counsel, zoning, for American Tower. In yet other cases, federal siting issues are playing increasing role in local zoning arena, experts said.

FCC released staff report Tues. on ultra-wideband (UWB) testing, outlining results of study that showed ambient radio noise levels in GPS bands in certain environments were “well above” emissions limits for UWB. FCC Lab also measured emissions from devices ranging from personal computers to electric drills, which it found had emissions above limits set for UWB devices but still within current Part 15 restrictions. Report underscored conservative levels of UWB limits by showing, for some GPS bands, ambient noise levels, and for consumer devices, emissions, that were many times greater than levels set for UWB in FCC order, several sources said.

Public safety groups last week opposed petitions by medium-sized carriers that challenged what they viewed as “strict liability” component of recent FCC Enhanced 911 Phase 2 order. Alltel, American Cellular and Dobson Cellular had petitioned for reconsideration of order that granted small and medium-sized carriers more time to meet interim Phase 2 deadlines. Carriers focused on part of order they said would deem companies noncompliant for failing to meet benchmarks without regard to manufacturers’s or vendor’s inability to supply equipment. Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO), National Assn. of State Nine One One Administrators and National Emergency Number Assn. urged Commission to dismiss petitions “because the FCC has a duty to enforce its regulations, particularly where the carriers have negotiated and agreed to comply with the regulations by a specific date.” Rather than impose “strict liability,” groups said FCC “did no more than warn the petitioners and similarly situated carriers that it would treat a failure to satisfy waiver conditions in the same manner as a rule violation, and that such violation would be subject to possible enforcement action.” Groups reiterated concerns about “seemingly endless stream of extensions of time and waiver requests” as potentially leading to complacency among carriers instead of “all-out” compliance efforts: “The Commission has not heartlessly closed off their ability to provide a reasonable explanation for noncompliance.” CTIA took different view, raising concerns about enforcement standard that would penalize carriers for failing to comply with E911 rules “for reasons beyond their control.” Those factors, CTIA said, include vendor failure to provide compliant products on time and LEC “intransigence” in providing necessary network upgrades. CTIA said “fundamental issues of due process, as well as the Communications Act itself, mandate that the Commission provide notice and opportunity to challenge any Commission finding of noncompliance.” Sec. 503(b) of Communications Act requires forfeitures not be imposed until FCC issues notice of apparent liability. CTIA said that language couldn’t be squared with strict liability language in E911 order, which said assertions vendors couldn’t supply compliant products wouldn’t excuse noncompliance. Nextel and Nextel Partners in joint filing said FCC had recognized that action wasn’t willful in context of compliance if it involved unavoidable circumstances.

Wide-ranging inquiry FCC released Wed. on wireless Enhanced 911, led by former Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Dale Hatfield, points to “seriously antiquated” wireline infrastructure for emergency calls. “It is an analog technology in an overwhelmingly digital world,” Hatfield concluded. “Yet it is a critical building block in the implementation of wireless E911.” Those limits will be felt as wireless E911 calls increase and will constrain E911’s reach to nontraditional systems such as PDAs, telematics and voice-over-IP networks, report warned.