Court agrees to stay FCC's new "E911" standards

By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
An appeals court on Tuesday put the
brakes on stricter standards that regulators are seeking to
impose on wireless phone carriers to help police and
firefighters more accurately locate callers in an emergency.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia cited
"procedural irregularities" in staying an order approved in
September by the Federal Communications Commission, which would
tighten standards that wireless carriers must meet for the
accuracy of their "E911" function, the FCC said.

In granting the stay, a three-judge panel of the appeals
court said the wireless carriers are likely to succeed in their
legal challenge of the FCC order.

The stay had been sought by a group of rural wireless phone
companies who, along with major carriers such as AT&T, Verizon
Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp, had sought to stop the new
standards from going into effect while they pursue an appeal.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon
Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc,

FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin issued a statement saying the
agency "will comply with the court's order and continue to work
with public safety and the wireless industry to ensure that the
public can get help in times of emergency."

The new standards are aimed at allowing public safety
workers to find someone who has dialed 911 from a cellular
telephone.

Under FCC standards, wireless carriers using E911 systems
must be able to determine a caller's location to within certain
distances.

Under the new standards, the compliance of wireless
carriers would no longer be averaged statewide or region wide,
a provision that has enabled them to meet standards even if the
accuracy of their system is poor in some parts of a state.

The new standards would instead require wireless carriers
to meet location accuracy standards within the area of each
local emergency call center.

The FCC's order required wireless companies to meet annual
benchmarks over the next five years and comply fully with the
new standards by September 11, 2012.

In tightening the standards last year, FCC commissioners
raised fears that current standards could lead emergency
responders to search in the wrong place for an injured caller
on a highway or fail to locate which floor a caller is on in a
high-rise building.

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