The FCC today clarified a point which had long been a source of confusion for those engaged in the E-911 distribution chain: over what geographic area must a carrier measure compliance with the Commission’s accuracy requirements? Some carriers had argued that their compliance level should be measured over their entire national network, a yardstick that would effectively boost their accuracy levels because of the overwhelming proportion of compliant calls in urban areas. Others had argued more narrowly for a BTA- or individual license- based measure. At the far extreme was the public safety community, who argued for measurements by each individual Public Safety Answering Point territory – an area often as small as a county and the hardest to demonstrate compliance over.
The FCC tentatively came down, as it so often does, on the side of the public safety community. The issue is now up for public comment, with many of the details still to be worked out.