Motorola and Lucent echo carriers' e911 confusion

31 Jul 2001 at 09:27 GMT Sinead Carew

Motorola Inc and Lucent Technologies Inc have responded to Verizon Corp's attempt last week to shift some of the blame for the e911 delays onto technology vendors such as themselves.

While Motorola claimed that it is broadly on track to deliver the 911 location technology on time, Lucent acknowledged that the technology is very complex. Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola suggested that financial caution is a large part of operators' motivation for asking the FCC for a waiver of their October 1 deadline.

Leading US operators including Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless and Nextel Communications Inc have all asked the FCC for more time to install location technology that will provide emergency services with information on the whereabouts of mobile callers.

While both Lucent and Motorola acknowledge the technical complexity of the roll-out of location technology, the latter insisted that it will have a network-based location solution available in time for the FCC deadline.

However, Verizon, which had originally planned to install network-based technology, argued in its waiver application to the FCC last week that hardware and software based components for the network-based system will not be available in time for testing and deployment by the deadline. The operator also noted that it is concerned about the accuracy of such systems and is now putting its energies into an assisted-GPS system - which combines handset and network technology.

Anil Barot, Motorola's senior product marketing manager for CDMA networks seemed to contradict Verizon's statements by insisting that Motorola would ship its network kit on time. He added: "Carriers have economic and technical issues. It's not just technology or capital problems. It's a combination. There is a trade-off between how much a product will cost and when it is purchased."

Motorola, which hopes to provide Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS and Alltel with location equipment, is also developing handset technology, which is based on assisted GPS.

Verizon said that the network element of Motorola technology, which it is now considering deploying, will not be available until near the end of next year. Motorola could not immediately respond to questions about its product availability.

A Lucent spokesperson confirmed that its technology would not be generally available until October 1 this year. While Lucent spokesperson Ichiro Kawasaki explained that the delay will help Lucent to ensure that its equipment is well tested and integrates well with other components of the network, he also noted that deployment could slip beyond this date because of the complicated testing process involved.

For example, in order to locate a user, three cell sites are used in a process called triangulation. "It is still not clear whether we need to test each cell site separately, or whether we can develop an algorithm which would allow us to test say only every tenth base station," Kawasaki said. "The implementation is very complex so we are taking the time to meet our standards for accuracy and robustness."

The vendor needs to upgrade and integrate its switch hardware and software with the third-party location determination technology and with the MPC (mobile positioning center), which draws location information and sends it to the relevant PSAP. And, as both Lucent and Motorola pointed out, even if the network element of assisted GPS is ready it will be useless until the accompanying GPS handsets are available to work with the network elements.

Nortel Networks, another Verizon supplier was not available to give its take on the situation but Verizon said it expects general availability of Nortel 's network equipment by January next year.

Everybody, including the FCC, the carriers, the equipment vendors and the public safety bodies, agree that the installation of working location technology is a complex project involving a lot of coordination. However, this same agreement could give all the organizations, which are supposed to make e911 happen, an all too handy cloud of confusion to hide behind for an indefinite period of time.