Federal Communications Commission FCC 14-13
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STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MIGNON L. CLYBURN
Re: Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements, PS Docket No. 07-114
Improving emergency response times has been a primary goal for 9-1-1 services, since 
1967, when President Lyndon Johnson first encouraged the FCC to collaborate with the wire line 
industry in the development of a nation-wide emergency number.  Consumers have made it clear 
that improving response times for 9-1-1 calls from wireless phones must also be a national 
priority.  As today’s item notes, the number of American households that are wireless only has 
grown from roughly 16 percent, in 2007, to 39 percent.  And, for those living below the poverty 
line, that number has risen to 54 percent.  
At our November 2013 workshop on location accuracy, we listened with unease about 
call centers in certain areas of the country not receiving the information they needed to dispatch 
help to those in need because mobile calls pose more challenges to first responders than wire line 
calls.  Citizens understandably expect and believe that their mobile handsets – especially those 
smartphones with location based services – provide them with the same capacity to get help as 
their wire line phones.  But all too often, this is simply not the case and the results can be 
heartbreaking.
Last month, at a Senate hearing on location accuracy, a witness testified that in Horry 
County, South Carolina, where you can find sixty miles of sun and fun, on and near Myrtle 
Beach, along with millions of other visitors each year, how 50% of their 9-1-1 callers cannot 
provide dispatchers with meaningful location information.  And, with estimates as high as 80 
percent of emergency calls being placed from cellular phones, it should come as no surprise that 
we have also been hearing pleas for location standards when wireless 9-1-1 calls are made from 
indoors.  Location services must improve, as quickly as possible, and the Commission’s response 
time to that end should also be swift.
 
We must ensure that our public safety obligations keep pace with consumer demand and 
technology shifts and I commend Chairman Wheeler for bringing forth a comprehensive Further 
Notice just three months after the November workshop.  The item includes creative rule proposals 
and asks a wide range of technical questions designed to improve the timeliness and accuracy of 
all wireless location information.  It also proposes, for the first time, location accuracy standards 
for wireless 9-1-1 calls from indoor locations.  I am pleased that we seek comment on testing 
compliance with all of these standards and on requiring carriers to send location information 
within 30 seconds from the time the mobile consumer makes her 9-1-1 call.  
Also noteworthy are the detailed questions about how developments in roaming, Wi-Fi, 
location based services and emerging technologies could impact the delivery of location 
information.  We need to make sure our location accuracy standards account for future 
innovations in mobile services.  The Further Notice also properly seeks comment on the abilities 
of PSAPs to access the location data that wireless providers send. 
I understand some members of the wireless industry are bristling because the 
Commission is proposing to enhance the location accuracy rules at a pace that is seen as a bit 
aggressive.  But today’s item asks the wireless industry, the public safety entities, and others to 
work collaboratively toward developing alternative proposals for our consideration.  And allow 
me to point out that one of the hallmarks of leadership in this industry is that it has, on many 
occasions, exceeded our expectations.  We have already heard from those, who concur, that it is 
Federal Communications Commission FCC 14-13
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time for the industry to adopt indoor location standards, and today, I wish to commend those 
entities.  It would be great to see other examples of this kind of leadership, and for the wireless 
industry to actually move ahead of schedule, in implementing all the proposed location accuracy 
rules that our nation so desperately expects and needs.   
I thank Admiral Simpson, and the dedicated staff, of the Public Safety Homeland 
Security Bureau, for their good work on this Further Notice, and for the presentation this 
morning.