Triton PCS, largest AT&T Wireless affiliate, has joined line of carriers at FCC seeking waiver for upcoming Oct. 1 deadline for Phase 2 of Enhanced 911 (E911). Triton asked Commission for waiver of E911 Phase 2 location accuracy requirements to allow it to provide Phase 2 services using Mobile-Assisted Network Location System technology in existing TDMA network and Enhanced Observed Time Difference of Arrival technology in planned GSM network. Triton said in petition that manufacturers informed it “less than 2 months ago” that they no longer planned to make GPS-equipped TDMA handsets. “Triton believes that there currently is no automatic location information technology that can fully satisfy the E911 Phase 2 accuracy requirements within the time frames prescribed in the FCC’s rules,” carrier told agency. Triton said its Phase 2 plans also were affected by AT&T Wireless’s plans for GSM overlay network that would replace its existing TDMA infrastructure. AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Nextel, Qwest Wireless, Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless are among carriers with waiver petitions pending before FCC. Meanwhile, Commission requested comment on E911 Phase 2 waiver request from Alltel. Alltel asked last month for waiver to allow it to deploy assisted-GPS hybrid E911 Phase 2 solution on timeline that deviated from FCC rules. Alltel proposed 9-month deferral of penetration benchmarks in FCC regulations. It said it wasn’t seeking waiver from Dec. 31, 2005, target of 95% penetration. Alltel also requested waivers of deployment deadlines for its Lucent, Motorola and Nortel switches. Meanwhile, Qualcomm told FCC in ex parte filing that Commission’s grant of AT&T Wireless and Cingular waiver requests “would both delay the initiation of E911 service for subscribers and would allow the carriers to deploy technologies which do not meet the FCC’s accuracy requirements.” Qualcomm told agency it shouldn’t weaken E911 accuracy requirements by allowing waivers. It also stressed that it was on track to make MSM3300 chipsets available in advance of Oct. 1 deadline. Chipset lets handset manufacturers equip 2nd generation phones with wireless-assisted GPS.

Verizon in Fla. introduced new subscription option associated with 911 service. Under Verizon’s “Notify Now” 911, customers can designate up to 6 numbers in Fla. or anywhere else in U.S. that will be called automatically when 911 call is placed from customer’s home phone. Numbers can be landline or cellphone, but not pager. Service, which costs $5 to set up and $3.95 monthly, will redial busy or unanswered phones for up to 50 min., and leave its message if contact person has answering machine. Service doesn’t run through 911 system and 911 operators won’t be able to provide additional information. Its purpose is to provide alert that something is amiss, but contactees will have to follow up on their own. Verizon service uses technology of Cal.-based 911Notify. Service is starting in Tampa Bay area but Verizon plans to offer it elsewhere.

Ill. Gov. George Ryan (R) signed bill to make “cyberstalking” a crime. Under new law (SB-233), crime of cyberstalking is defined as using e-mail or other forms of online communication to send threats of bodily harm, sexual assault, restraint or confinement to another person on 2 or more occasions. Crime carries same penalties as traditional forms of stalking, including up to 3 years in prison on first offense and up to 5 years for additional offenses. Ryan said cyberstalking could be more dangerous than traditional forms of stalking because of challenge for victims and police to prove offense had occurred. He said bill would help ensure cyberstalking cases were treated in same way as other types of stalking. Ill. becomes 31st state with cyberstalking law. Ryan also signed another telecom-related bill (HB-476) that exempts prisons from enhanced 911 phone law that requires customers with large buildings to have internal phone systems that automatically pinpoint exact location on premises where emergency is occurring. Efforts to add schools to exemption bill failed, and schools say they must pay tens of thousands of dollars to comply with E911 location law.

Denver City Council’s safety and personnel committee recommended city approve $812,000, 5-year contract with Qwest for reverse 911 services. Service would allow city officials to phone and play recorded warnings to specific individuals, neighborhoods or blocks that faced danger in emergencies such as chemical spills, storms or prisoner escapes. Service would be restricted to situations where public had to know about its danger right away and where there would be dire consequences if public wasn’t warned. City officials said Qwest’s 23-cent charge per reverse 911 call would help ensure technology was used sparingly, and only handful of officials, such as city’s police and fire chiefs, would be authorized to activate reverse 911 system. Denver 3 years ago investigated setting up its own reverse 911 system but found technology wasn’t ready yet and city didn’t have access to updated phone number lists and unlisted numbers. Qwest-provided system would be based on Qwest’s own 911 databases. City Council may make decision on reverse 911 contract next week, officials said. Other jurisdictions have looked at reverse 911 idea and some have deployed it for limited-scale applications. Vt. last week abandoned plans for a statewide reverse 911 system.

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.”