POWELL OUTLINES NEXT FCC STEPS ON E911

Powell also told the annual APCO conference the 800 MHz reconfiguration proceeding was “now at the top of our priorities and we are moving much closer to a decision.” APCO, Nextel and other backers of a “consensus plan” for realigning 800 MHz to mitigate public safety interference tweaked parts of their proposal in a filing at the FCC last week. They answered criticism that certain parts of the reconfigured spectrum would represent less than optimal slices of those bands. The revisions involved the plan’s interference protection criteria and would “provide enhanced postrealignment interference protection to all noncellular channel block licensees,” the filing said. “In particular, guard band licensees will enjoy enhanced interference protection from adjacent cellular channel block operations comparable to that of noncellular block licensees in the 854- 859 MHz channel block.”

While noting the complexity of technical issues in the proceeding, Powell said “collaborative efforts to find a solution to this problem have been productive.” Of the interference issues in the band, he said: “This may be on the most challenging spectrum policy proceedings that will ever come before this Commission.” What the FCC will do to help resolve public safety interference at 800 MHz has been a galvanizing theme of the conference, which started Mon. APCO, Nextel and others are behind a plan to reconfigure spectrum at 700, 800 MHz and elsewhere, which involves relocating some public safety and private wireless users and an $850 million funding commitment from Nextel to do so. Backers of a competing plan, including CTIA and the United Telecom Council, in an FCC filing last week assailed that funding proposal, questioning whether it was enough and whether it would be available in time to be useful. Shoring up support for the plan, APCO has been giving out posters and business cards to conference attendees with the motto: “There’s a reason it’s called the Consensus Plan.”

Powell ticked off a list of E911 milestones, including the availability of new location-capable handsets, that he said represented “impressive and sustained” progress. He cited efforts such as APCO’s Project Locate, which provides help to public safety answering points in filling out requests for E911 Phase 2 service. “Clearly, the team we need to win the war is in the field and engaged,” he said: “There is still so much to be done.”

Powell said the next session of the FCC’s E911 Coordination Initiative would be Oct. 29-30. The first meeting was in April and was part of a Commission attempt to foster new cooperation among E911 stakeholders on remaining implementation issues. That session focused on issues such as how to improve coordination and on frustration of some participants that certain state funds collected for E911 rollout were being diverted to other purposes. The FCC doesn’t have purview over state and local funding issues, but the next phase of the initiative will bring together for the first time the E911 designees of each governor. They will provide a “key interface” for E911 deployment efforts in the states and in public education efforts, Powell said. That effort will underscore the importance that state funds collected for E911 be used for that purpose, he said. The 2nd meeting of the coordination initiative also will address current deployment issues, accuracy requirements and new public education efforts, he said.

The NRIC subcommittee will follow through on one of the recommendations of an E911 report by former Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Dale Hatfield that suggested a technical group look at 911 network architecture and technical standards. “Measuring and improving the accuracy of E911 location information will be a key priority,” Powell said. The group will work under the auspices of the NRIC, which he said would continue to examine homeland security issues under a new charter. A Jan. meeting of the FCC’s Technical Advisory Committee will focus on 911 technical issues, he said. Hatfield will help the FCC in all these follow-up technical efforts, he said.

In another E911 area, Powell said the FCC was examining the method the agency used to measure carrier compliance with its accuracy rules. A working group of the Emergency Services Interconnection Forum (ESIF) is looking at ways of testing location accuracy. The point is to develop minimum, practical requirements that will ensure that individual test methodologies provide consistent and reproducible results, he said. The working group plans to send its recommendations to the ESIF for review by the full body by the end of Nov. “The Commission intends to monitor ESIF’s progress as this effort goes forward and to assess how best to build on their efforts in our future compliance work,” Powell said.

Powell highlighted areas that he said indicated that E911 compliance and “deployment is picking up rapidly:” (1) That carriers’ Aug. 1 E911 Phase 2 quarterly reports filed at the FCC showed that Phase 2 information was being provided now by at least one carrier in each of 480 markets to more than 1,200 PSAPs -- an increase of 50% over the previous quarter. (2) That morfe than 65% of the 6 national carriers’ E911 markets have come on line in the last 6 months. (3) That every nationwide wireless carrier using a handset-based technology for delivering caller location information is offering at least one compliant handset, and Sprint and Verizon are offering at least 10.