WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday (March 5) it will launch an initiative to speed deployment of Enhanced 911 services.
The E911 Coordination Initiative aims to bring together public safety officials, wireless carriers and regulators to find ways to expedite deployment of a wireless E911 system. The initiative will kick off with an April 29 meeting at FCC headquarters, the agency said.
Despite calls for expanded services and more bandwidth for a E911 wireless infrastructure after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, little progress has been made on spectrum allocation and standards issues.
The April meeting is designed to follow up on the recommendations of an E911 report to the FCC last year. The report concluded that the existing wireless E911 network is "seriously antiquated" and called for creation of an advisory panel to determine the framework for a wireless system.
The report recommended the development of "industry-wide procedures for testing and certification of wireless E911 to ensure that they meet the accuracy requirements specified in the Commission's rules."
FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the initiative would provide a forum for hashing out issues involving technical standards, funding as well as pressing wireless and local exchange carriers to roll out the enhanced services as soon as possible.
