STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI
Re: Amending the Definition of Interconnected VoIP Service in Section 9.3 of the Commission’s 
Rules, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, GN Docket No. 11-117; Wireless E911 Location 
Accuracy Requirements, Third Report and Order, PS Docket No. 07-114; E911 Requirements for 
IP-Enabled Service Providers, Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, WC Docket No. 
05-196
The Communications Act assigns this Commission important responsibilities with respect to 
public safety communications, none more significant than ensuring that our first responders are able to 
find and provide assistance to Americans in harm’s way.  
We are at a time of great opportunity and serious challenge when it comes to harnessing 
communications technologies to help first responders and save lives.
A nationwide, interoperable mobile broadband network would put the communications tools 
consumers take for granted in the hands of police, firefighters, and other first responders.  It would 
implement an important recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. I applaud the Senate Commerce 
Committee for recently passing legislation to build a broadband public safety network; the House Energy 
and Commerce Committee is working on similar legislation. And we will continue to work with Congress 
to make that vision a reality. 
On emergency alerts, modern communications give us the opportunity to alert people to disasters 
anytime, anywhere. But until recently, this was just a theory.
I was pleased to announce at Ground Zero the accelerated deployment of a new national mobile 
alerting system – PLAN – which will allow people to receive emergency alerts directly on their mobile 
phones. This is complementary to the broadcast emergency alert system. A similar system saved lives 
during the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and it will make a real difference here in the U.S. 
during, for example, disasters like the recent tornadoes in the Southeast, where every second of warning 
counts.
With respect to 9-1-1, there are also big opportunities and challenges – opportunities to connect 
people and 9-1-1 responders through all forms of communications. But today’s 9-1-1 system does not 
empower the means of communication consumers take for granted. It does not provide for sending texts 
to 9-1-1, or photos or video.  
Today, the average American sends about 20 texts a day, and the average teenager sends over 
100.  Yet we know of instances like the tragedy at Virginia Tech where texts to 9-1-1 went unanswered.  
Who knows how many other times this has happened, but even once is too many.
Today only about one-quarter of Public Safety Answering Points use broadband to process 9-1-1 
calls.  And that’s only the first step to achieving next generation 9-1-1.  We are hard at work developing a 
game plan to accelerate next-generation 9-1-1, and I will continue to make this an agency priority.  
Today’s action addresses another major opportunity and challenge – that of ensuring that mobile
9-1-1 works as it should.  For both the current 9-1-1 system and next generation 9-1-1 to work, we have 
to be sure that callers can be located, wherever they are, whatever technology they’re using to 
communicate.  
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Mobile phones allow people to call 9-1-1 from anywhere, including places where traditional 
phones aren’t available.  And the percentage of 9-1-1 calls from mobile has increased dramatically – from 
about 25% in 2001 to over 65% today.
When Americans call 9-1-1 from their landlines, first responders receive accurate location 
information more than 98 percent of the time.  But one quarter of all households have now “cut the cord” 
and given up their landlines for wireless phones.  Others are turning to alternative voice services that may 
not enable a PSAP to locate a caller or may not support 9-1-1 at all.  When Americans call 9-1-1 from 
their mobile phones, first responders are about 50 percent less likely to receive precise information about 
the caller’s location. One half as likely.  And this affects both rural and urban areas.  The inaccuracy can 
be up to one or two miles, or fail to pinpoint the caller’s location inside a building, particularly a tall 
building, or the PSAP may get no location information at all.  We must do better.
A consumer who has come to expect an alert on her cell phone that a nearby restaurant is offering 
a discounted meal should also be able to expect that when she contacts 9-1-1, first responders will know 
where she is.
Today’s Order sets us on the path to improving the delivery of accurate location information 
when the public calls for help.  The Third Report and Order continues the process we began last 
September of strengthening our existing Enhanced 9-1-1 (or E9-1-1) location accuracy rules, by requiring 
all wireless carriers to meet the more stringent metrics of the handset-based location accuracy standard.  
The item has a necessary transition plan to come into compliance.  I encourage commercial mobile 
carriers to beat the deadlines, as many mobile carriers have committed to accelerate implementation of the 
new PLAN emergency mobile alerts.  
We also are initiating periodic testing of the ability of wireless networks to provide accurate 
location information to ensure that first responders can rely on the location information they receive. And 
we extend that challenge to finding and developing cost effective solutions to the problem of indoor 
location accuracy, which poses difficulties when callers are deep inside buildings without a strong signal. 
In that same vein, I encourage VoIP providers to work with us to ensure that VoIP consumers can 
call 9-1-1 in an emergency with first responders getting the location information that can save lives.
Today’s Second Further Notice also explores ways to ensure that newer communications 
technologies like VoIP service leverage existing technology to provide 9-1-1 centers with critical and 
potentially life-saving automatic location information.  
I thank the staff of our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and my Special Counsel 
and Legal Advisor, Amy Levine, for their considerable and ongoing work in this area.  I look forward to 
working closely with the CSRIC, the public safety community, communications providers, and other 
stakeholders to continue to harness technology to improve our nation’s 9-1-1 service.