FCC Narrows Phase II Accuracy Testing

In a late Wednesday vote, the FCC has narrowed the scope of Phase II 911 accuracy testing by cellular companies, ruling that they must use local data to meet a 150/300-yard accuracy requirement rather than statewide or even region-wide data. The rules take effect within five years, the FCC ordered, and were uniformly criticized by cellular carriers who say the new tech specs will be difficult to achieve and expensive. Now, cellular companies are allowed to average their Phase II accuracy test results over their service region, which allows some areas to have very inaccurate Phase II location reporting. Under the new rules, carriers must eventually measure accuracy at the PSAP level, with increasingly smaller regions between now and Sept. 2012. Download (pdf) the press release on the action here.