| By Tony Lee, CommLawBlog, March 2, 2014 | | Commission looks to move CMRS location requirements indoors, expand | them from 2-D to 4-D. | | Since 2010 the FCC has been insisting on greater accuracy in the | ability of wireless providers to pinpoint the location of wireless | phones for E911 purposes. The automatic location information (ALI) | rules currently in place require that carriers be able to provide | Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) the location of an E911 | caller to within 50 to 300 meters (depending on the technology | used). But that requirement applies only to calls originating | outdoors, and it mandates provision of only horizontal locations | determined by geographic coordinates (i.e., latitude and | longitude). | | Nowadays, however, wireless phones are the source of most 911 | calls, and the "great majority" of wireless calls originate indoors | -- hence the need for improved indoor E911 location capability. | | Fortunately, test bed results and industry input confirm that | indoor location technologies have improved considerably, so much so | that they are expected to "deliver 50-meter location accuracy for | many indoor environments with a high degree of reliability" in the | near term. With its Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking | (NPRM) the FCC is now looking to ensure that the wireless-dependent | public benefits from that capability.
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Neal McLain
***** Moderator's Note *****"... 50-meter location accuracy for many indoor environments"?
Fifty meters is over one hundred and sixty-four feet. In an apartment building, that's as much as sixteen stories of vertical distance, and I suspect that someone trying to summon aide in an emergency would do better to lower their cell phone on a rope, with a note attached.
Bill Horne Moderator