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Vertical Applications
- E911 - An
Important Public Safety Requirement-
E911 stands for electronic
911 and refers to the requirement by cellular network carriers to
provide location information for emergency calls from cellular
telephones. FCC in USA and similar bodies in other countries
in conjunction with associated public safety agencies have mandated
that cellular carriers provide approximate location of distress
calls from cellular phones. Original date for completing this
implementation in USA was October 1, 2001 but very few carriers were
able to meet this date. Therefore, this date has been relaxed
somewhat.
E911 is somewhat associated with commercial implementation of Location-Based
Services. You may go there to get more information that is
common in terms of technology and business applications.
"This is work in progress as of November
2003" - MobileInfo editorial Comment
E911 Issues
E911 is primarily an FCC (federal
communications regulator in USA) initiative. Success of E911 has
faced several hurdles. Hatfield report in USA has highlighted
several concerns and issues. We are highlighting some of these
issues for professionals to deal with:
- Accuracy of various location
identification technologies - GPS, E-OTD, etc - Go to the
relevant location-based page on our site to understand this. FCC
has set compliance expectations - phase one (1998) and phase 2
(October 2001) - 100 metres for 67% of calls, and 300 metres for
95 % of calls
- Lukewarm support of wireless carriers
to meet the compliance requirements
- Availability of interoperable
standardized handsets - A number of proprietary handsets are
available now
- Retrofitting of PSAPs (Public Safety
Answering Points) - various agencies that receive these calls -
mostly emergency dispatch centers.
- State of Existing PSAP infrastructure - Somewhat
antiquated in many places
- Inadequacy of funding at local level
to retrofit hardware and software - it is not a trivial effort -
billions of dollars are required. Somebody must foot the bill -
federal government, homeland security agency, state agencies or
local jurisdictions.
MobileInfo News Pages on E911
MobileInfo has published a number of news stories regarding E911.
To get a complete and current list, do a keyword search on this site
using "E911" as the keyword. Here is a sample of these news items as of November 2001:
| Does
the Deadline of E911 Need to be Extended? |
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Abstract: News
Issue #2001-31 - August 2001 - This news item is an overview
of the progress made by carriers, police departments and call
centers as they work towards implementing the FCC’s mandate
for E911 service, as the October 1st deadline fast approaches. |
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