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When seeds are planted in the spring, gardener enthusiasm is high. As summer wanes, plants are lucky to get regularly watered and occasionally weeded. 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 is now in the midst of fall, with participants hunkered down for a long cold winter. The early enthusiasm is now only a distant memory.
It all started out so well. In an unprecedented move, CTIA jointly proposed requirements for wireless emergency services with representatives of public safety (NENA, NASNA and APCO). This cooperation blossomed into the FCC Mandate. 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.
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. Disabled advocates quickly demanded that all handset models (not just some) support their needs. The FCC championed their cause, leaving wireless carriers to comply. One heavily publicized case emphasized that analog phones could not make emergency calls if they were programmed to use only use 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 was now starting to grow. ATIS and TIA standards committees 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. And, 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, in the neighborhood, were a number of pedlars, going door to door selling the promise of wondrously accurate network-based location systems. The FCC, perhaps fooled by their natty salesman suits, thought that estimates, projections and laboratory results could be extended to the real world. When it turned that more had been promised than could be delivered, the FCC invited yet another group - the handset-based location vendors. They could deliver better accuracy under most circumstances (but still not all), but only to people who had new phones, making their original mandate of delivering location to everyone harder to achieve.
The latest dustup in the garden is an FCC NPRM calling for callback for everyone. Since the Phase 1 mandate requires that the caller’s phone number is delivered when 911 is dialed, it is possible for emergency workers to call them back if they accidentally hang up or pop the battery out of the phone - but only if they have a current subscription. Without, it is a technical impossibility, unless carriers give people who promise to only make emergency calls a free subscription to manage their callback number (and waive any monthly 911 charges that help pay for the service).
Now autumn is approaching, leaves are rattling across my garden and neighbors are glaring at each other. I am wondering whether next year they will put their efforts into building bigger fences or planting a community garden.
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