While different carriers have different implementation schedules based on their size and unique circumstances, most carriers have met or exceeded this portion of the FCC’s rules. To ensure that its requested relief excludes any wireless carrier that has willfully disregarded the Commission’s E911 requirements, CTIA proposes that relief from the handset penetration rules only be granted to carriers that have met the Commission’s interim handset deployment benchmarks. Likewise, CTIA proposes that the suspension of the rule last only as long as a particular wireless carrier needs to come into compliance.
Chickens Or Eggs?
The chief barrier to E911 implementation is a chicken and egg problem. Which comes first: enabled handsets and carrier networks that can locate callers or infrastructure upgrades that will enable PSAPs to make use of location data provided by carriers?
In May of this year, according to a Wall Street Journal article, only 41 percent of the nation’s 6,171 PSAPs had installed technology that would enable them to read location data transmitted from cell phone systems. The Journal said that only six states and the District of Columbia have accomplished the upgrades necessary to receive and utilize location data sent by wireless callers in most places in the
state. Sixteen states have upgraded less than 10 percent of their counties and six of those have not finished a single county.
While progress has been steady, it is slow. By the end of June, Wireless Carrier Quarterly Reports filed with the FCC indicated that a seventh state had completed its work and that two more states had equipped more than 95 percent of their PSAPs. But 13 states had equipped fewer than 5 percent of their PSAPs, including five states that had so far done nothing.
“About 50 percent of the public service agency jurisdictions in the country are now
able to handle wireless Phase II, which includes locating callers,” says Roger Hixson, technical issues director with the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).
No one can blame the PSAPs for moving slowly. Estimates suggest that upgrading the remaining 50 percent of their systems could cost as much as $8 billion. In recent years, funding for upgrades has been hard enough to come by as states’ governments struggling to overcome budget shortfalls have often raided 911 accounts.
