Location, Location, Location: Andy Seybold Writes on Locating Wireless E911 Callers, November 30, 2015 | National Public Safety Telecommunications Council

We are all familiar with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) new rules for locating wireless E911 callers. On the back of a unanimous Commissioners’ vote, the FCC roadmap for compliance is very clear, and the test beds are set up and ready to prove or disprove a technology’s ability to meet the location requirements within the specified deadlines. So your network should be able to meet the E911 compliance milestones without any problems, correct? Perhaps not.

The measurements needed to meet the FCC rules will, over time, require the network operator to be able to provide emergency call accuracy within 50 meters (150 feet) horizontally for 80 percent of all emergency calls or alternatively provide a very precise “Dispatchable Location”—an accurate address, floor, and suite/apartment of the caller. This represents a blended mix of “live” emergency calls that for the first time include indoors as well as outdoors, rural, suburban, and dense urban area results. These metrics are averaged over the appropriate county (more than 3,000 across the country) in the market where they are measured. The rules represent a number of “firsts.” For example, it is the first time a carrier’s location performance is judged on the basis of “live” 9-1-1 calls, and it is the first time Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) are empowered to trigger an enforcement action. Let me delve into these “firsts” in more detail.