Small Carriers Asking FCC to Tweak E-911 Location Accuracy Rules
The Rural Telecommunications Group and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association will ask the FCC to change its E-911 location accuracy rules so they're less demanding for some small carriers. The groups plan to file a petition for rulemaking Thursday, RTG Counsel Carri Bennett told us.
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The current rules, approved in September, require that carriers using handset-based location technology be able to pinpoint calls within 150 meters. But the rules exclude the most heavily forested 15 percent of counties. The FCC noted in its order that conditions in those counties pose the most difficulty for the technology. RTG and NTCA will ask instead that the smallest carriers -- serving six or fewer counties or public safety answering points -- be allowed to exclude any of the counties from the 150 meter requirement because of forestation.
The FCC approved long-awaited changes to its location accuracy rules (CD Sept 24 p6), signing off on a compromise among major carriers, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International and the National Emergency Number Association.
"By effectively excluding small carriers from the ability to assert a forestation exclusion from the handset accuracy requirements, the commission’s order failed to provide the intended relief to the entities most affected by heavy forestation in their service areas,” Bennett said.
RTG and NTCA had first sought the change in a petition for reconsideration, which they sent to reporters late Tuesday. They then learned that they had missed a filing deadline, Bennett acknowledged. The groups decided to recast the contentions as a petition for rulemaking.
"This arbitrary 15 percent cap on the forestation exclusion discriminates against small carriers, contravenes the purpose for the exclusion, undermines the public interest, and should therefore be eliminated or modified,” the petition said. “RTG and NTCA members serve rural areas of the country, including many of the most heavily forested lands. In such areas, it can be difficult or impossible to meet the 150 meter accuracy requirement for carriers utilizing a handset-based E911 solution."
"RCA is reviewing the issue raised by the petitioners regarding the lack of clarity of the handset-based exclusion,” said Rural Cellular Association President Steve Berry. “Either way, it would be helpful for RCA’s smaller members to have a better understanding of the specific meaning of the FCC’s handset-based exclusion.”