roundtable: Action Alert-911 Access

roundtable: Action Alert/911 Access

Action Alert/911 Access

Jim Conran (jconran@watson.policy.net)
Fri, 6 Jan 1995 16:09:50 -0500 (EST) 

Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 16:09:50 -0500 (EST)
From: Jim Conran <jconran@watson.policy.net>
Subject: Action Alert/911 Access
To: roundtable@cni.org
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9501061622.C10370-0100000@watson.policy.net>


January 6, 1995 

ACTION ALERT...ACTION ALERT

____________________________________________________________________

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (Notice)(Docket Number 94-102) on October 19, 1994 in the
Matter of Revising the FCC Rules to ensure Compatibility with Enhanced 911
Systems.  The rulemaking states as one of its primary objectives that all
911 enhanced services be broadly available to all consumers.  We believe
that this rulemaking will not guarantee 911 emergency access to cellular
phone users.  The proposed rulemaking requires wireless carriers to
provide this service only to "service initialized" users or users that
purchase their cellular phones from a wireless service provider. 

This proposed arcane requirement is quite contradictory to the FCC's
ultimate objective of providing "broad accessibility" to 911 services.
Cellular users will have the expectation that when they use their phone to
contact 911 during an emergency, they will have immediate contact with the
operator.  Consumers will not think to question the reliability of their
cellular phone or the wireless service providers, instead public
confidence on the 911 emergency system will be jeopardize. 

The Alliance for Public Access to 911 (Alliance) believes that in order
for the FCC's proposed rulemaking on the "broad availability of 911 and
enhanced 911 services" to be fully recognized, the FCC must require all
cellular switches to accept all 911 calls.  In addition, the FCC should
require all cellular phones to be equipped to access the strongest
cellular base station signal when 911 is called.  Finally, the FCC should
make the 911 provision an issue as it currently reconsiders cellular
license renewal applications.  The issue of safety and security for all
Americans is too important an issue to be compromised. 

The Alliance has submitted comments to the FCC which address the concerns of
several of the country's leading consumer interest organizations.  These
organizations have collectively come together for the purpose of
presenting their shares views of the Notice.  The Alliance is a collective
of non-profit, safety concerns whose members include Consumers First, the
Center for Public Interest Law, Consumer Coalition of California, Consumer
Action, the Alliance for Technology Access, Towards Utility Rate
Normalization (TURN), and the Utility Consumer Action Network (UCAN).

Internet users concerned with this issue can find more information 
including a copy of the rulemaking, comments prepared by the Alliance and 
a sample letter that can be forwarded to the Commissions at the FCC.  

This information is located at:

http://watson.policy.net/cf/cf.html
gopher://watson.policy.net:70/11/.cf
email: jconran@911.policy.net 

Jim Conran
Executive Director
Consumers First       			|   jconran@911.policy.net
P.O. Box 75237
Los Angeles, CA 90010
213/251-4620
510/253-1937
510/253-1359 (Fax)

[CNI Home Page]