FCC is seeking comments on Enhanced 911 Phase 2 waiver request by Sprint PCS, which it said would allow it to deploy assisted GPS solution for its CDMA network. Sprint told Commission last week it was taking number of steps to begin making E911 capabilities available but that it would not be able to comply fully with Phase 2 by deadline of Oct. 1. Commission is seeking comments by Aug. 22 and replies by Sept. 1.

After series of waiver requests that FCC has received on upcoming deadline for Phase 2 of E911 implementation, 15 House Democrats and one Republican urged Chmn. Powell to hold fast to Oct. 1 date. Citing Commission’s work to resolve problems related to timely deployment, letter said: “We are concerned that the coordination of effort may be hindered by use of the FCC’s waiver process as a delay tactic rather than for legitimate, intended purposes.” Letter was written by Democratic Reps. Eshoo (Cal.), Markey (Mass.), Luther (Minn.), Green (Tex.), Harman (Cal.), Rush (Ill.), McCarthy (Mo.), Gordon (Tenn.), Farr (Cal.), Kildee (Miss.). Also signing July 31 letter were Democratic Reps. Berman (Cal.), Blumenauer (Ore.), McKinney (Ga.), Pelosi (Cal.), Kind (Wis.) and lone Republican English (Pa.). About half of members signing missive, also sent to Wireless Bureau Chief Tom Sugrue, belong to House Commerce Committee. “In our view, there has been adequate time for wireless carriers and manufacturers to take the necessary steps which would allow them to meet these long established deadlines,” lawmakers wrote. Missive contended basic wireless E911 parameters have been in place since 1996 and many of subsequent changes have been done at behest of carriers themselves. Letter comes after all largest wireless carriers have submitted waiver requests to FCC, which haven’t yet been acted on, concerning Oct. 1 deadline. Carriers asking for temporary waiver include AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Nextel and Qwest Wireless. Two more recent additions to queue of waivers include Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS. In their waiver requests, carriers outlined extent to which network equipment and upgraded handsets will not be available on time. House Telecom Subcommittee members had expressed concerns at hearing last month about when advanced wireless location capability of Phase 2 of E911 would be ready. At hearing, ranking subcommittee Democrat Markey had warned FCC against making waivers for sake of “business convenience.” Groups representing public safety answering points (PSAPs) have continued to raise concerns about when E911 Phase 2 capabilities will be implemented. Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO), National Emergency Number Assn. and National Assn. of 911 Administrators commented on pending Cingular waiver request for its GSM networks. Groups noted carrier plans to implement Enhanced Observed Time Difference of Arrival solution as quickly as equipment becomes available and network upgrades happen. This part of waiver request comes close to meeting FCC waiver guidelines, groups told FCC in comments. They also point out that Cingular has rejected alternative handset-based solutions because they aren’t available now. “That, however, is a somewhat circular argument as handsets might have been available by now had Cingular and others placed firm orders earlier in the process,” APCO and other groups said.

Sprint PCS told FCC Mon. it won’t be able to comply fully with Phase 2 Enhanced 911 rules or finalize “a simultaneous, national roll out of enhanced 911 location systems” by Oct. 1 deadline. Citing factors such as vendor delays, Sprint asked Commission for limited, temporary waiver of certain Phase 2 requirements. Carrier also outlined for agency areas where it’s on track to meet mandates, including plans to introduce more than 5 million GPS-equipped handsets by year-end 2002, and conversion of all new handset-models to GPS by Dec. 31, 2002. Phase 2 requirements for which Sprint PCS is seeking relief are: (1) Deployment of network infrastructure. Sprint pointed to Nortel delays in providing needed switching software to support Phase 2 location capabilities. One Lucent market should be ready for Phase 2 by Oct. 1, but “complete conversion of all Lucent markets” isn’t expected until 2002. (2) Sprint PCS may not be able to meet interim requirements that 25% of all new handsets be Phase 2- capable by Dec. 31, with 50% by June 30, 2002. Carrier said it could meet requirement of starting to sell GPS handsets by Oct. 1 and end-date requirement of full compliance by year-end 2002. Interim handset requirements may not be met because of conversion of Sprint PCS network to 3G. (3) “Due to the sheer volume of PSAP (public safety answering point) requests and the complexity of their installation, Sprint PCS will be unable to implement enhanced 911 systems within 6 months of every request received.” Carrier outlined preliminary deployment schedule that would phase in service roll-out. Sprint also raised concerns about lack of progress among LECs in upgrading automatic location information (ALI) databases to support Phase 2. Wireless industry and public safety community came up with interim standard that calls for upgrades to ALI database used by PSAPs and LECs. Based on responses Sprint PCS has received so far, “LECs are not making plans to upgrade their ALI databases to support these functions,” carrier said. Sprint said: “Because this issue promises to substantially undermine the efforts of PSAPs and wireless carriers to deploy Phase 2 services,” carrier said it’s urging FCC to launch inquiry into LEC preparedness in this area. LEC readiness is starting to be raised at FCC by other carriers, as well, said Luisa Lancetti, vp-PCS regulatory affairs. Extent to which Sprint is far along on Phase 2 deployment has made issue apparent to it now, she said. “We have made significant steps to make real this location capability,” she said. Later this summer, Sprint plans to conduct first market application in R.I., launching first GPS- enhanced 911 system, she noted. In its filing, Sprint PCS also said that by Oct. 1 it will have introduced at least one GPS handset model “in commercial quantities” and will have installed new national platforms to conduct location calculation and routing for these handsets. Sprint PCS also said that by Oct. 1 it will have tested new switching software for at least one vendor.

Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO) lauded Cingular Wireless as first major U.S. wireless carrier to join Project Locate. In April, APCO kicked off project, under which 48 states have chosen model public service answering points (PSAPs) that would be ready to receive early implementation requests under Phase 2 of Enhanced 911. At that time, APCO officials said no wireless carrier had joined PSAPs effort. Others supporting Project Locate include Federal Highway Administration, HiTech Systems, Intrado, Schema Systems. APCO plans breakfast meeting Aug. 6 in Salt Lake City to recognize participants in project and encourage other wireless carriers to join.

Cingular Wireless withdrew part of its request for Enhanced 911 (E911) Phase 2 waiver. It had sought waiver to allow it to deploy hybrid network and handset-based technology called Enhanced Observed Time Difference of Arrival in its GSM networks and switch-based location technology for its TDMA networks. Cingular told FCC last week it was close to finishing tests that it expected would validate switch-based technology that it would deploy on its TDMA networks. When those tests are wrapped up, Cingular said, it will resubmit waiver request for its TDMA networks. FCC said in notice Fri. that comment deadlines for Cingular waiver request remained unchanged -- comments July 31, replies Aug. 10.

Largest U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless told FCC late Tues. it couldn’t deploy its planned Enhanced 911 (E911) Phase 2 solutions by regulatory deadline and requested limited waiver. Verizon is latest in string of carriers to file waiver requests with FCC on Phase 2 timelines, joining Nextel, AT&T Wireless, Cingular and others. Verizon filing came in advance of FCC Oct. deadline for beginning to deploy more specific wireless location capabilities of Phase 2. Verizon proposed alternative compliance timeline, requesting temporary waiver of Phase 2 handset-based location technology deadlines. Carrier attributed temporary waiver request to fact that network upgrades and Phase 2-capable handsets wouldn’t be available in time from vendors. For Phase 2 deployment of its network assisted GPS-advanced forward link trilateration handset solution, carrier proposed to: (1) Begin deploying network-assisted portion by Oct. 1 in its switches and cell sites for Lucent markets, Jan. 1, for Nortel markets and Nov. 1 for Motorola markets. (2) Complete deployment of those network upgrades by April 1 for Lucent markets, Aug. 1 for Nortel markets and March 1, 2003, for Motorola markets. (3) Begin selling Phase 2-compliant handsets that used that technology in Dec. Under proposal, 25% of new handsets would be activated by July 31, 2002, 50% by March 31, 2003, 100% by Dec. 31, 2003. “It is important to note that this schedule would result in the deployment of network upgrades in all of Verizon Wireless’s markets, irrespective of receiving” request from public safety answering point (PSAP), Verizon said. Aside from deploying GPS-based software solution, Verizon Wireless plans to provide network-based location information to PSAPs for many customers until its full Phase 2 technology is rolled out. “Verizon Wireless is committing to deployment of Phase 2 technology in its network in advance of many PSAPs’ own capability to do so,” filing said. That means that customers who buy Phase 2-capable handsets in those areas “will be ready to be served as soon as the PSAP upgrades its own emergency communications capabilities to use the location information that Verizon Wireless will be ready to transmit.”

Vt. Dept. of Emergency Management says it is abandoning plan to set up statewide reverse 911 system that would link addresses to phone numbers to automatically place calls to households and businesses in danger during emergencies and give recorded warnings and instructions. Emergency Management Dir. Edward von Turkovich told legislative oversight committee supervising project that too many technical obstacles existed to make system work on wide scale. He said his agency instead would work to improve existing methods for warning public of emergency alerts, such as by radio and TV broadcasts. Von Turkovich said small-scale versions of reverse 911 existed in state, such as systems in place around state’s prisons to warn neighbors if prisoners escaped. He said such systems worked within small geographic area and with limited types of emergencies, but attempts to scale up such systems to cover wide areas and wide range of emergencies all failed to meet tests of reliability, economy and ease of use. He said state hadn’t given up on idea, but would wait until technology further matured before pursuing it.

Members of House Telecom Subcommittee urged Defense Dept. and wireless industry Tues. to work out differences on 3rd generation wireless spectrum, although military top brass continued to raise red flags on relocation, reimbursement, timing. Verizon Wireless CEO Denny Strigl used hearing to call on Congress to weigh in on settlement solution for C-block spectrum returned by U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to NextWave. On 3G front, Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) said he planned to introduce bill “as soon as possible,” quipping that all spectrum was “on the table” except for bands occupied by MMDS and Instructional TV Fixed Services licensees. Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) said he foresaw markup in Oct. time frame, despite differences that appeared to be keeping cellular operators and Pentagon apart. While much of panel appeared to be interested in finding ways to use DoD-occupied spectrum at 1.7 GHz for mobile Internet applications, several members questioned impact on national security and continuing military operations. Rep. Harman (D- Cal.), addressing Pentagon “skepticism” about ability of military to move, said, “I would not agree that the right answer is ‘We just can’t.'” She said: “I would suggest that more attention needs to be paid to how to make that transition effective.” Nearly 3-hour hearing, first this year on 3G, also focused on Enhanced 911 progress and need for lifting spectrum cap.

National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has issued compilation of wireless phone legislation that state lawmakers have passed so far this year, including spate of measures directed at Enhanced 911 (E911) costs. Not counting bills that restrict cellphone use while driving, 20 states passed legislation covering other wireless issues, including new taxes. At least 9 governors have signed into law since Jan. legislative provisions on E911. Earlier this month, Alaska adopted bill that allows creation of E911 surcharges on wireless bills. For municipalities with populations of at least 100,000, E911 surcharge can’t exceed 50 cents per wireless phone number. For towns with fewer residents, surcharge can’t be greater than 75 cents per wireless phone. Ky., Md., Me., Miss., Neb., N.M. and Tenn. also passed E911-related legislation. Okla. bill, HB 1691, signed into law in April, allows county boards to submit question of 911 emergency wireless communication fee to voters. N.M. bill, HB 339, creates wireless E911 surcharge. In Miss., HB 469 establishes commercial mobile radio service board and requires wireless carriers to provide E911. Measure authorizes state highway patrol and local govts. that participated in wireless program to assess additional surcharge on drivers stopped for traffic violations. Surcharge can be used to pay for public safety wireless equipment. New Tenn. law directs state Dept. of Economic and Community Development to conduct study on wireless service in rural areas. Study must be completed by Feb. 15 and is to address costs of erecting additional towers to reach lower population areas. It also must evaluate feasibility of state and local govts.’ participating in construction of additional towers to improve wireless access of public safety agencies.

Congress can help new automatic auto crash notification (ACN) technology increase vehicle safety by encouraging research grants and by keeping effort free of regulation, ComCARE Alliance said Thurs. While Capitol Hill understands value of telematics -- application of voice and wireless technology to in-vehicle services -- “there is no government initiative to install telematics in automobiles,” ATX Technologies Pres. Steven Millstein said at media breakfast that started all-day “technology demonstration” in Rayburn Bldg. “Despite the lack of a mandate from Congress, safety is on the minds of the automakers, which are voluntarily rolling out automatic crash notification technology,” he said. Congress needs to understand importance of ACN and “allow it to flourish without any intervention,” he said. ComCARE is coalition of medical, 911, law enforcement and public safety groups; wireless carriers; automotive companies; telematics suppliers. Group said it seeks $5-10 million in federal grants to support R&D efforts for ACN technologies and protocols.