E-911: Hero to Be

There's no question that wireless communications was a hero that Tuesday morning. However, in the wake of the terrorist attacks, several voices emerged to criticize the industry for the unavailability of E-911 Phase II, saying location technology would have aided the search-and-rescue efforts in New York City and Washington, DC.

To be fair, the FCC's deadline for E-911 Phase II deployment was not until Oct. 1. That date meant little, though, because every carrier under the sun admitted beforehand that Phase II would be late.

But carriers can't take all of the blame as delays have been pervasive: GPS handsets are unavailable; network upgrades are late; most public-safety answering points (PSAPs) are not equipped to handle Phase II data; and location technologies do not consistently meet the FCC's accuracy requirements.

The devil's advocate, however, points out that carriers have known E-911's requirements and deadlines since 1996. That's been more than ample time, say many analysts and regulators.

Looking back to Sept. 11, many have wondered what E-911 could have done. Even one life saved via location technology would have made a difference. The unfortunate truth is that we'll never know. Perhaps the better question is, will Sept. 11 motivate a new resolve to make E-911 a reality?

At 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Sept. 11, the Communications Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, chaired by Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC), was to hold a hearing on E-911. The meeting, of course, was canceled after that morning's events. Congressional interest in E-911 implementation, which spiked last summer, now is even more keen.

“Congress will be all over the thing, simply because it's such an easy target,” said Roger Entner, Yankee Group program manager, wireless mobile services. “The wireless industry seemed to ignore a very important safety issue, and if anybody wants to take cheap shots at the industry, here's the opportunity.”

Jim Nixon, VoiceStream director of government affairs and a fixture at E-911 hearings, expects the scope of increased congressional interest to include the public-safety community, not just wireless carriers.

“I would not be surprised if there was more interest from the Hill on getting everybody to move forward more quickly on this,” Nixon said.

The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, chaired by Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), and its Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, chaired by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), held an E-911 hearing June 14.

“I want to put a face on this issue — it's the face of loved ones who might be saved when E-911 is there to assist emergency services personnel in finding those in trouble,” Upton said at the hearing.

In a July 31 letter sent to FCC Chairman Powell, 16 members of the House expressed concern that carriers are using the waiver process “as a delay tactic rather than for legitimate, intended purposes.” Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) was the lead signature on the letter. Until Oct. 1, waiver requests flooded the FCC.

A Sept. 27 follow-up letter from Eshoo and 28 other House representatives specifically refers to Sept. 11, saying it demonstrates how much Americans depend on wireless and the role E-911 can play during national emergencies. The letter also praises the “heroic efforts” that maintained communications networks during and after Sept. 11.

“We must harness this commitment to E-911, and by doing so, any obstacles standing in the way of making this service available can be overcome,” the letter states.

Both letters point out that basic E-911 requirements have been in place for five years, adequate time for the industry to implement location technology.

Sept. 11 was a wake-up call to the wireless industry that safety remains one of the prime reasons people buy wireless phones, according to Entner.

“E-911 has tremendously increased in importance,” he said. “We should not toy with safety features. It's very important that we have them, and financial considerations should play second fiddle compared to them.”

One would hope that, at least internally, carriers have a new resolve to implement Phase II technology.

“In the past, it was somewhere in first or second gear,” Entner said. “Now AT&T, and I'm sure the other carriers behind the scenes, have pushed it into top gear. After these tragic events, it has an urgency, and AT&T was the quickest one to move on that urgency.”

In a Sept. 17 filing, AT&T Wireless altered its TDMA network Phase II plans. Previously, the carrier stated it would implement a mobile-assisted network location system (MNLS) for its TDMA footprint. Citing the public-safety community's opposition to MNLS technology, AT&T said it will instead implement a network-based solution, beginning Nov. 1.

“It would be an amazing coincidence if the two events (Sept. 11 and AT&T's filing) were unrelated,” Entner said.

Nixon said VoiceStream escalated E-911 to the highest of priorities, even before Sept. 11.

“We're leaning forward in a foxhole,” he said.

For each of Voice-Stream's network vendors, Ericsson, Nokia and Nortel, the carrier has identified a PSAP that will receive Phase II first office applications (FOA), where live testing occurs before general availability. The Nokia FOA will start Feb. 6, 2002, in Houston. Ericsson's FOA will be Washington, DC, and start June 30, 2002. Denton County, TX, will receive the Nortel FOA May 21, 2002.

Regardless of how much time the wireless industry once thought it had to implement E-911, Sept. 11 has rewritten priorities and should create new urgency. It's crystal clear that the FCC now demands an ardent commitment to E-911.

In a statement on the commission's E-911 waiver decisions, Chairman Powell described a new sense of urgency around public-safety uses of mobile phones.

“It is not good enough for a gentleman's C,” he said. “This test requires an A+ effort.”

A Sept. 21 filing to the FCC from three major public-safety organizations also called for a vigorous commitment to E-911 in the wake of Sept. 11.

“The urgency of this work has increased a thousand-fold in the face of recent terrorist attacks on our own soil,” the filing states. “Life in the United States of America has changed forever. The President has alerted us to prepare for further acts of terrorism here at home. This is real.

“Of one thing we can be certain: Use of wireless phones will play a vital role in reporting and responding to incidents as they occur and in preventing incidents before they occur. 911 operators will be the first to take the calls. They will be the caller's lifeline. The need for Phase II has always been clear; the need is even greater now. We no longer have the luxury of time.”

The mistake of the FCC's original E-911 mandate was that it did not define penalties for non-compliance, according to Roger Entner, Yankee Group program manager, wireless mobile services.

“It's like if you tell your children, ‘I would really like you to do that, but there's no consequences if you don't,’” he said.

The FCC has approved waiver requests for Nextel, Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless and the GSM portions of AT&T Wireless and Cingular (those carriers' TMDA waivers were submitted too late for evaluation with the others). Interim compliance dates were revised for each carrier, but the FCC did not delay the date by which carriers must have 95% of their handsets Phase II-capable: Dec. 31, 2005. The commission will keep close tabs on the compliance of those five carriers and VoiceStream, requiring them to submit quarterly progress reports.

It is clear from each commissioner's comments that the FCC will not tolerate further delay in E-911 implementation.

“The current failure to meet the commission's Phase II E-911 deadlines is shameful,” FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin's statement said. “Nonetheless, we are told by manufacturers and suppliers that meeting today's deadlines is a practical impossibility. Let me be clear; these delays must come to an end.”

If that's not motivation enough for the industry, public and competitive implications should be.

“The public will crucify the carrier that doesn't make it,” Entner said. “And the other carriers will make them look uncaring: ‘Look at carrier X, they don't care about your security. Come to us.’”