T-Mobile Says Dual-Mode 911 Calls Aren’t Under VoIP Rules
T-Mobile is resisting FCC efforts to change its handling of 911 calls over the Internet on its Unlimited Hotspot Calling service by callers with dual-mode phones. The FCC has had a T-Mobile petition for clarification of the matter since 2005, before the company started the Wi-Fi/GSM service. T-Mobile fears the FCC may require changes in carrying out the NET 911 Improvement Act, which gives VoIP providers better access to the 911 system, it said.
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T-Mobile has met with aides to most of the FCC commissioners on the matter in recent weeks. An early draft of a rule written in response to the NET 911 act dealt with T-Mobile’s petition, a source said. The carrier wants the FCC to act on the petition independent of its broader VoIP 911 rulemaking.
“It would turn the Act on its head to force providers like T-Mobile, which already have proven access to 911 infrastructure as CMRS providers, to rely instead on the newly-created infrastructure access mandated by the Act for interconnected VoIP providers,” the carrier said in a recent FCC filing. “T-Mobile urges the Commission not to take any actions in implementing the new law that could limit its ability to provide the most effective and efficient 911 routing for customers that take advantage of its Hotspot Calling service.”
T-Mobile routes all calls from dual-mode phones through its CMRS E-911 network when possible, or through another GSM carrier’s network, it said. Of the nearly 87,000 calls to 911 from on dual-mode phones in July, T-Mobile could route all but 119 through a CMRS network, it said. A few calls were made by callers with broadband access but no cellphone signal. “For these 911 calls, which the user otherwise would not have been able to place, T-Mobile uses a combination of user-supplied location information and other information available to T-Mobile in its network, including T-Mobile-branded HotSpot location addresses, the last GSM cell site on which the user’s handset was detected, and IP addresses, to route these calls in the most accurate manner possible,” the carrier said. T-Mobile created its procedures after extensive discussions with public safety officials, it said.