FCC demands greater accuracy for 911 callers’ location
Rating: good investment
By Annie Turner
As we suggested on 31st August, the US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) looked ready to put the boot in, forcing American operators to ensure that people who dial 911 for emergency assistance on their mobiles can be located much more accurately.
According to Bloomberg, late yesterday the FCC voted to make mobile operators test their 911 location systems at the local, as opposed to state-wide, level. Currently the FCC requires these systems to identify a caller’s location within 150 or 300 yards (137 or 274 meters) 95% of the time, depending on the type of technology used. The state-wide system accepts an average compliance, which the FCC has decided is not good enough. The new ruling will mean heavy investment for all the operators in order to comply by 2012.
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA, the four biggest carriers, had fought against the ruling without success, claiming it to be impracticable and unreasonable. Still, while the operators gnash their teeth, the equipment vendors must be struggling to hide their glee, and what a boost to location-based services.
It’s poignant and pointed too that the FCC should make such a ruling on the sixth anniversary of 9/11, when better communications and more accurate information about location would almost certainly have saved lives.
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