GPS and 911 Accuracy Will Headline Carr's 2nd Meeting as Chair
The FCC will focus on making GPS and 911 calls more reliable at its March 27 open meeting, Chairman Brendan Carr announced Wednesday. The meeting will be the second with Carr at the helm. Draft meeting items are expected to be posted Thursday.
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Commissioners will vote on an inquiry that explores “alternatives to GPS,” Carr said in a blog post. “We rely on GPS for so many facets of modern life -- from emergency response to military operations to simple driving directions” -- and “while GPS may be indispensable, it is not infallible.” Relying on a single system leaves the U.S. “exposed,” and “the risks to our current system are only increasing,” he said.
President Donald Trump and Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Ed Markey, D-Mass., have "advocated for the government to take action to ensure we have a resilient system in place,” Carr said. The FCC notice will explore the use of other positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems that can complement or serve as an alternative to GPS, he said. “Beyond answering technical questions, we hope this effort will engage stakeholders across government and industry to encourage the development of new PNT technologies and solutions.”
The FCC last year sought comment on a proposal from NextNav that the agency reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for PNT (see 2404160043). That proposal got some support but also faced opposition led by amateur radio operators (see 2408120024).
"This is a foundational step in responding to a critical national security need,” emailed NextNav CEO Mariam Sorond. NextNav is ready to work with the commissioners and staff “and all those committed to winning the race to GPS resiliency,” she said.
The FCC will also consider a proposal updating rules to increase the resiliency, reliability and accessibility of next-generation 911, Carr said. “Unfortunately, periodic ‘sunny day’ outages of 911 systems have exposed possible gaps in the coverage of our existing 911 reliability rules.” Last year, AT&T paid a $950,000 penalty for a 2023 multistate, 74-minute 911 outage caused by a systems test gone wrong (see 2408260041). Also in 2024, a global error in software from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike caused 911 outages to Microsoft systems in numerous states (see 2407190025).
“In particular, we want to make sure third parties that provide services like call routing are covered by our reliability rules,” Carr said. The proposal would also seek to “improve transparency and accountability” during the multiyear transition from legacy 911 to NG911, he said. In January, public safety groups asked the FCC to require telecom providers to operate a 911 outage dashboard (see 2501090011).
Commissioners will also take up an item about strengthening the location accuracy rules for wireless calls to 911, an issue that has been before the FCC for years.
“Too often, the vertical location (Z-axis) information that 911 call centers receive is not easily usable, and first responders end up on the wrong floor,” Carr said. Providers “rarely deliver dispatchable location information like a street address or the caller’s apartment or room number, despite the FCC’s rules saying that information should be provided when technically feasible.”
The FCC pivoted to require providers to supply dispatchable location information, when possible, in 2015 (see 1501290066). Representatives from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials warned in November (see 2411040002) that while carriers “may be delivering dispatchable locations for a small number of wireless 9-1-1 calls, the methods being used and whether/how any testing has been conducted are unknown.”