FRED UPTON, M ICH IGAN 
CHAIRMAN 
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 
FRANK PALLONE, JR., NEW JERSEY 
RANKING M EMBER 
<!Congre~~ of tbe Wntteb ~tate~ 
J!)ouS'e of l\epre9'entatibe9' 
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE 
2125 R AYBURN H ousE O FFICE B u iLDING 
W ASHINGTON, DC 20515-6115 
The Honorable Tom Wheeler 
Chairman 
Federal Communications Commission 
445 12th Street, S.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20554 
Dear Chairman Wheeler, 
M&JOrtty (202) 225-2927 
Mtnonty (202) 225-3641 
January 28, 2015 
Our Committee has a proud history of offering strong bipartisan support to our nation's 
first responders. In this spirit, we write to support the Commission's efforts to establish indoor 
location accuracy rules for 9-1-1 call s. 
We encourage you to adopt a technology-neutral solution that leverages available 
technologies. Such a solution will not only be grounded in solving today's problems with today's 
solutions, but wi ll account for and anticipate the myriad ways in which these needs might evo lve 
in the future. Most emergency calls arc no longer made from landlinc phones. On average, more 
than two-thirds of all calls to 9-1-1 are made from wireless phones. However, if these wireless 
calls are made indoors, no location standards apply. This gap in the nation's 9-1-1 policies can 
delay first responders and much worse, cost li ves. 
The Commission's work over the last year, combined with the efforts of public safety 
communications professionals and wireless carriers, will help provide first responders the 
information they need to help those in need: a dispatchable location. These location identifiers 
are essential for public safety, law enforcement, and emergency services professionals to respond 
as quickly as possible in the direst moments. 
We have heard concerns that the FCC is considering rules that would lock public safety 
into using a single, proprietary technology for providing indoor locations. If this is true, we 
wou ld urge you instead to consider solutions that can operate across multiple technologies and 
platforms and are not tethered to a single technology. 
The Commission's successes when it refrains from choosing technology winners and 
losers are many. Whether one looks at the Commission's decision to allow CDMA and GSM to 
compete for wireless market share or to its current work to create regulatory parity for broadband 
Letter to The Honorable Tom Wheeler 
Page 2 
access platforms, where the Commission has removed technology mandates and allowed 
innovation, the market has charted a winning course. 
Thank you for your continuing work to improve our nation's public safety 
communications systems. 
Sincerely,