The FCC, the US telecoms regulator, is to take action against several US wireless operators over their failure to achieve the target set for customers to have E911 location capability.
The E911 legislation required that, by the end of 2005, 95 per cent of customers should have been on the E911 system, which allows the position of mobile phones used to make emergency calls to be determined.
Alltel, USCC, Sprint Nextel and Nextel Partners have all been denied a waiver request and will be referred to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau for “failure to comply with the handset penetration requirements”.
The companies had requested waivers ranging from six months to two years.
Verizon, Centennial, Dobson, Leap and Qwest also failed to secure waivers of the requirements, but the FCC has decided not to pursue action against these companies yet.