Federal Communications Commission	FCC 19-20


STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
Re: 	Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements, PS Docket No. 07-114.

The FCC is committed to ensuring that when you call 911, you will get the help you need.  We’ve taken several steps over the past two years to fulfill that commitment.  Just last year, we began to explore how location-based routing technologies could help improve the routing of wireless 911 calls.  We also began to implement Kari’s Law, enacted in 2018 to ensure that consumers calling from multi-line telephone systems, such as those used by hotels and office buildings, can call 911 without having to first dial a prefix.  And today, we seek to improve 911 with a proposal to help call centers and first responders locate 911 callers within multi-story buildings.

Specifically, we’re proposing a way to enable first responders to figure out what floor you’re on when you call 911.  This is a big problem in many places; call-takers and responders alike might know which building you’re calling from, and where in the building you are located from a horizontal perspective, but if that’s a place like the FCC’s headquarters, this information alone may not be enough to find you.

In technical terms, then, we’re aiming for a vertical, or “z-axis,” location accuracy metric of plus or minus 3 meters relative to the handset for 80% of indoor wireless 911 calls.  If a 911 call transmits a location no more than 3 meters above or below your phone, then first responders can better determine what floor you’re on in an apartment, hotel, or other multi-story building.  This could reduce emergency response times and save lives.  This point was hammered home to me during recent visits to New Jersey and Delaware.  Captain Kevin Briggs, the 911 Coordinator for Burlington County, New Jersey, told me this would be especially helpful when individuals can’t articulate where they are, such as children or elderly people unable to communicate.  And in Delaware, Anita Bell, the Dispatch Administrator for the Seaford Police Department, told me how vertical location technologies could be a huge benefit to first responders and 911 callers alike.

Originally, the wireless industry proposed that our vertical location accuracy metric should be plus or minus 5 meters.  But based on the results of the tests that have been conducted to date as well as the input of public safety officials, I believe that a more stringent proposal is justified, and I have every expectation that our proposal will give our nation’s first responders the information they need to save lives.

The Commission’s overarching mission is promoting the safety of life and property through use of communications.  Fulfilling this obligation day in day out would not be possible without the work of Brenda Boykin, Ken Carlberg, Rochelle Cohen, John Evanoff, Nellie Foosaner, Lisa Fowlkes, David Furth, Erika Olsen, Austin Randazzo, Rasoul Safavian, and Michael Wilhelm from the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau; Chana Wilkerson and Sanford Williams from the Office of Communications Business Opportunities; Eric Burger, Giulia McHenry, Chuck Needy, and Emily Talaga from the Office of Economics and Analytics; Aspa Paroutsas and Jamison Prime from the Office of Engineering and Technology; and Jonathan Campbell from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. 
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