STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI Re: Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements, Second Report and Order, PS Docket No. 07-114; Wireless E911 Location Accuracy Requirements, E911 Requirements for IP- Enabled Service Providers, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry, PS Docket No. 07-114, WC Docket No. 05-196. When Americans call 9-1-1- from their landlines, first responders receive location information that’s accurate more than 98% of the time. When Americans call 9-1-1 from their mobile phones, first responders are about 50% less likely to receive precise information about your location. Fifty percent… The inaccuracy is not just a few feet, but up to one or two miles—and sometimes no location information at all. Meanwhile, more and more 9-1-1- calls are being made from mobile phones – over 425,000 mobile 9-1-1- calls every day, and rising. What does that mean in practical terms? Yesterday, I had a chance to visit with the men and women who answer 9-1-1 calls at the McConnell Public Safety Operations Center in Fairfax, Virginia – and I saw, up close, the challenge of dealing with increasingly mobile 9-1-1- calls. The Officers I met with said that when they don’t receive accurate location data as part of a wireless 9-1-1 call, it can cost the first responders six minutes in delay trying to locate the caller. Sometimes more. Precious minutes that can be the difference between life and death. Now, mobile telephones play a vital and positive role in our emergency safety system. Mobile phones let people call 9-1-1- from places where there are no landlines readily available, enhancing public safety. And like any new technology, they create new issues, like distracted driving and the location-accuracy issue we are tackling today. The order we adopt today makes location-accuracy requirements more stringent for wireless service providers. This will give first responders a better chance at locating callers much faster. It will enhance the public’s safety. And we have more work to do. Our Further Notice launches an inquiry on how to improve indoor location accuracy, and our NOI accelerates our work on how new and developing broadband technologies can help Americans reach 9-1-1 wherever they may be. Our actions today fulfill another recommendation of the National Broadband Plan. One final point on mobile 9-1-1 location accuracy. When I was in Fairfax yesterday, the public safety officers described ways that people can help first responders, and themselves, when they are making 9-1-1 calls from mobile phones. Try to pay attention to landmarks, and mile markers on highways for example; remember the floor you’re on in a tall building. I have instructed our Public Safety and Consumer Bureaus to develop, together with the public safety community, a fact sheet for consumers with helpful information on mobile 9-1-1 calls. We will soon have this on our website and work together with the public safety community on ways to pursue this education initiative – to help mobile 9-1-1 callers better and more quickly locate them in times of emergency. I thank the staff for its great and ongoing work in this area. I look forward to continuing to work very closely with the public safety community, wireless service providers, and consumer advocates to continue to harness technology to improve the 9-1-1 service.