Bitter Harvest

When seeds are planted in the spring, gardener enthusiasm is high. As summer wanes, plants are lucky to get watered regularly and weeded occasionally. Then comes fall: Leaves yellow and wither, and the garden dies, soon returning to a barren, windswept, winter landscape.

E-911 had its happy spring and contented summer, and it is now in the midst of fall, with participants hunkered down for a long, cold winter. The early enthusiasm is only a distant memory.

E-911 started out so well. In an unprecedented move, CTIA jointly (www.wow-com.com) proposed requirements for wireless emergency services with representatives of public safety (National Emergency Numbering Association, www.nena9-1-1.org; National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators; and Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, www.apcointl.org). This cooperation blossomed into the FCC mandate (www.fcc.gov). Phase 0 would enable all wireless users to place 911 calls; Phase I would identify the mobile phone and provide cell location; and Phase II would provide more accurate location information.

The friendliness of those days did not last long. First, it was discovered that digital phones did not allow TTY users (deaf and hard of hearing) to make calls. Advocates of TTY users quickly demanded that all handset models (not just some) support their needs. The FCC championed their cause, leaving the wireless industry to comply.

One heavily publicized case emphasized that analog phones could not make emergency calls if they were programmed to use only one system. This time the wireless industry fought back more successfully, promising to turn out handsets that always would try alternate systems if the prime system were not available.

The garden now was starting to grow. The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (www.atis.org) and TIA standards committees (www.tiaonline.com) were working on Phase I solutions, based on significant changes to wireless systems and modest changes to emergency networks. But, as soon as these were published, it became clear that the fruit was not to everyone’s taste.

Changes to digits that accompany the call (mobile phone number and cell identification) require changes to selective routers, specially programmed telephone switches controlled by the LECs. Yet, Ma Bell was not invited to the original garden party, nor did the FCC send her a summons to make her cooperate.

It also appears that a number of peddlers were going door to door in the neighborhood selling the promise of wondrously accurate network-based location systems. The FCC, perhaps fooled by their natty salesman suits, thought that their estimates, projections and laboratory results could be extended to the real world.

When these peddlers couldn’t deliver on their promises, the FCC invited yet another group — the handset-based location vendors. These vendors could deliver better accuracy under most circumstances (not all), but only to people who had new phones, making the original mandate of delivering location to everyone harder to achieve.

The latest dustup in the garden is an FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking requiring callback for everyone. Because the Phase I mandate requires delivery of the caller’s phone number when he dials 911, emergency workers can call him back if he accidentally hangs up or pops the battery out of the phone — but only if he has a current subscription. Without one, it is a technical impossibility, unless carriers, to manage their callback numbers, give free subscriptions to people who promise only to make emergency calls (and waive any monthly 911 charges that help pay for the service).

Now autumn is approaching, leaves are rattling across the garden, and neighbors are glaring at one another. Will they put their efforts into planting a community garden next year or just in building bigger fences?

Crowe (crowed@cnp-wireless.com) is a wireless-standards consultant and editor of Cellular Networking Perspectives, a wireless-standards and -technology bulletin.