A call to action: As E911 deadlines approach, the PCS industry needs to understand the necessity and benefits of location technology

PCS carriers that delay in deploying location technology may end up looking like April fools later this spring. The clock is ticking down to the April 1 deadline when emergency calls from wireless phones must begin resembling the enhanced 911 service of landline, and installing sophisticated location technology is the key to satisfying that deadline.

To date, most wireless carriers have been tightlipped about their 911 strategies and vendor alliances. Although this deadline has loomed on the horizon ever since the FCC docket 94-102 passed in June 1996, there have been only a few product trials.

This call to action is the first of a two-part decree. Phase I of the order requires carriers to be able to route wireless 911 calls to the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP). Furthermore, subscriber information must be sent, including the automatic number identification and location of the cell site or base station receiving the call. This allows the PSAPs to ring back the caller.

And although October 2001 may sound like the distant future, it is much nearer at hand for the wireless service provider. That's when the challenging Phase II mandates go into effect. The FCC upped the ante with this second rule by adding more stringent location requirements. Wireless companies will have to pinpoint the location of the emergency caller within 125 meters and do so at least 67% of the time.

Service providers generally have not shared their E911 tactics. Vendors, on the other hand, are more eager to discuss their advancements. Xypoint was the first to field-test a product that complied with Phase I of the FCC mandate. In a 90-day test with Vanguard Cellular System, Xypoint successfully routed calls and the associated information to emergency dispatchers in Allentown, Pa. The Xypoint configuration runs over SS7 and acts as a gateway between the wireless, landline and emergency operators.

"When a 911 call is placed from a switch, the switch does a query into our platform across existing SS7 links. Our platform will respond with the correct information," explains Ken Arneson, president and CEO of Xypoint Corp.

"The fundamental beauty of our system is that we compensate for the inadequacies in the wireline system to deal with dynamic kinds of information from mobile callers. The wireless carrier ensures that the voice call gets connected into the wireline system, very much as it is today. Then we take the dynamic information and stage a record, essentially to paint the screen for what the emergency operator would see. We deliver that to the emergency dispatch group that receives the voice call. The data goes one way, the voice goes another way and they're connected back up at the time the operator's phone rings," says Arneson.

Security at a cost Perhaps there's no mad rush to deploy E911 because carriers may doubt the ability of states to legislate a means of reimbursing them for carrying emergency calls. Yet E911 deployment is contingent on having a financial recovery program in place, according to the FCC.

Today, 33 states have no such plan. An access-line surcharge, similar to the wireline fee, will likely fund the program in 12 states. And a handful of states may tap into an emergency services till to pay the price of security.

"There is no technology hurdle for Phase I. The element, though, that still needs to move forward is cost recovery," Arneson says. "We see great progress on that front, but the mechanism still needs to be put in place."

Another pivotal issue is indemnification. Local exchange carriers currently enjoy very broad liability protection throughout most of the United States. Surprisingly, 15 states have extended a similar shelter to wireless carriers.

Some 19 others shield the emergency service provider but not specifically the communications provider. The remaining states either view the service providers as potentially liable or have no service immunity statutes.

It's little wonder, then, that carriers are not jumping on the E911 bandwagon until these business-threatening issues are hammered out.

The other side of that coin is that PSAPs must be able to receive such advanced services, and they must request it from the carriers.

"The April 1 deadline is only triggered by requesting 911 centers. My experience has been that those centers that feel there are questions about adequate funding have not made a formal request," explains Bill Covington, senior regulatory attorney for AT&T Wireless. "Right now, we have approximately 4000 PSAPs in our service area, and one-half of 1% have moved forward to the stage of wanting to negotiate contracts with us for the provision of service.

"That tells me there may be some concerns about funding," he adds. "Some states are adopting a wait-and-see approach and will come on board once the service is up and running. And a lot of 911 centers are genuinely concerned about the variety of technologies that may be offered to them by an industry that may have five to seven carriers in each market."

On reconnaissance AT&T Wireless, both a digital cellular and PCS operator, is one of the few carriers to announce E911 vendor selections for Phase I. The nation's largest wireless provider has signed pacts with SCC Communications for data management, Tandem Computers for the intelligent network platform and SignalSoft for the software portion of the venture.

The carrier plans to test the muster of the trio in Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas, sometime this month. It aims to use the configuration for its nationwide PCS and cellular holdings. Of course, the design must fit both analog and digital scenarios.

Unfortunately, the same is not universally true for Phase II solutions. Most of the Phase II products work only in the amps world and will not remedy the situation for time division multiple access, code division multiple access and GSM. Still, with the deadline a few years out, time is on the side of the Phase II developers.

Among the forerunners is TruePosition. In one of the first live trials of Phase II technology, the company partnered with Comcast Cellular to test the E911 location abilities. Along a 50-mile stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike, TruePosition receivers were placed in 24 cell sites. They tracked mobile activity for 100 days using time difference of arrival technology.

"We located 3500 actual callers and 81,000 test calls," reports Louis Stilp, vice president and general manager of TruePosition. "There have been technology issues that we've had to overcome, but probably the longest running issues are the political ones. We work with carriers in different states to get laws passed for funding and to limit liability. Now that we have a product that's ready to ship and the technology is proven, we've got to close the business deal. And the business deal, unfortunately, is not just with carriers. It's a carrier and government deal combined. It takes more time than you wish."

Opportunities abound If carriers appear reluctant to voice their plans for Phase I, it is not surprising that virtually no vendor selections have been announced in the Phase II arena. Whatever wireless Galahad is first to roll out a viable E911 service, odds are that subscribers will herald the call and follow in droves.

"In every market, there are carriers that are willing to go first," Stilp says.

"Carriers that like to wait and see will deploy later," he says. "By 1999, that staging will be over. It won't be a matter of a government mandate anymore. It will be a matter of competition once the first carrier turns on 911."

Not to be outdone by independent vendors, LECs also offer a service that will fill the bill of Phase I requirements. Known as Feature Group B, the LEC service sends the E911 subscriber data ahead of the voice portion of the call. The problem is that this usually results in an excruciatingly long call set-up time, sometimes up to 15 seconds. By that time, the person seeking emergency help is likely to hang up and redial.

Another issue is that Feature Group B creates no migration path to achieving Phase II compliance.

Whatever the vehicle for transmission, there is no denying the very real need for wireless 911. As the lines between wireless and wireline continue to blur, subscribers naturally expect their mobile handset to do everything a fixed unit does. And when it doesn't, wireless is sure to suffer from public relations battle scars.

The cry for E911 support wails from public safety organizations, too. With more than one-third of their requests coming from cellular and PCS phones, staffers need to service these callers the same way they do landline pleas.

And because necessity is the mother of invention, the E911 dilemma may actually foster a new market sector. Take the case of LifeSafety Solutions. The Pennsylvania company makes it their business to deliver medical histories, names and ages of subscribers and family members as well as the home to PSAPs. The plan, called 911Plus, will also phone a designated number if 911 is dialed from the home.

Expect more novel approaches to emerge as entrepreneurs respond to the battle cry for additional levels of security. That is, after all, still the number one reason why people become wireless subscribers.