Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Judge sends strongest signal 911 rule back to FCC

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 21:39:04 -0400

Judge sends strongest signal 911 rule back to FCC
By HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER
September 04 13:16:00, 2003

WASHINGTON—A federal district judge has sent back to the Federal Communications
Commission a class-action suit against several carriers and handset manufacturers
regarding whether their phones comply with the FCC’s 911 strongest-signal rules.
“Plaintiffs argue that this language clearly and unequivocally indicates that the
17-second rule deems a call complete when it is transmitted to the base station and then to the landline phone system.
We disagree with the plaintiffs; it is not clear from the language exactly what act must be performed by the handset in
17 seconds,” wrote Judge John Gray of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division.
“The intricacies of cellular call technology lead us to the conclusion that resolving the ambiguities of the rules is not within our
conventional expertise, but is within the FCC’s field of expertise. Moreover,
there does not seem to be any dispute that a consistent and uniform rule is
necessary, and we are mindful of the possibility of inconsistent rulings. The
issue has already been before the FCC, but the FCC has not spoken in a clear
manner.”

The Wireless Consumers Alliance filed several lawsuits late last year claiming
that none of the 33 phones it tested met the FCC's 911 strongest-signal rules
adopted in 1999. Earlier this year, all of the cases were consolidated with the
Chicago suit.

The FCC gave the carriers and their manufacturer partners several options on how
to implement its 1999 strongest-signal rules. Under one option, the phone must
inform the caller that a 911 call has been placed by both an audible message and a
message on the phone screen, and the phone must connect to the preferred carrier
within 17 seconds or switch to the non-preferred carrier. All phones with an
analog mode were required to comply with this rule as of Feb. 13, 2000.
“I am confident the FCC will reaffirm its decision that call completion means the
delivery of the emergency call to the landline network,” said WCA President Carl
Hilliard.

The FCC’s view on the 17-second rule was thrown into doubt earlier this year when
Nokia Corp. entered into a consent decree, and documents were referenced that gave
a different interpretation.  “We're in the process of reviewing the decision,”
said Meribeth McCarrick, spokeswoman for the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications
Bureau.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=14947

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