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FCC to Launch E911 Coordination Initiative

FCC calls meeting to devise strategies for E911 deployment.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- FCC Chairman Michael Powell announced that the FCC will launch an enhanced 911 coordination initiative in late April at an FCC-convened meeting to follow up on the findings and recommendations contained in the Hatfield Report.

Dale Hatfield is an independent expert and adjunct professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Telecommunications at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the FCC commissioned him to examine technical and operational issues affecting E911 deployment.

The meeting will also address ongoing implementation issues, the FCC said, such as Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) funding, wireless carrier implementation and prioritization, issues relating to local exchange carriers (LECs) and challenges faced by rural carriers.

The FCC said the April meeting will be the first in a series of coordination efforts that will help the FCC facilitate E911 deployment across the country.

The announcement came on the same day the FCC proposed a $1.25 million forfeiture from T-Mobile USA for violation of E911 Phase I rules.

Based on an investigation by the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, the FCC found that in more than 450 instances, T-Mobile failed to provide E911 Phase I service within six months of a valid request for Phase I service from a PSAP. Although T-Mobile had received a waiver of the E911 Phase II rules, T-Mobile never requested a waiver or other relief from the Phase I rules.

Under Phase I of the E911 rules, wireless carriers are required to provide to the designated PSAP the telephone number of the person making a 911 call from any mobile phone accessing their systems, as well as the location of the cell site or base station receiving the 911 call.

The Federal Communications Commission