TruePosition Accepts All Mandates Stipulated by the FCC for Wireless Carriers

TruePosition Inc., a provider of wireless location technologies and solutions and a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, announced that it will follow all the mandates that are specified by the FCC for wireless carriers to meet stringent location accuracy requirements for Enhanced 9-1-1.

In a release, Stephen Stuut, chief executive officer for TruePosition said, “TruePosition embraces the tightened location accuracy standards set by the FCC. Every 9-1-1 caller in the United States should be able to expect to be located regardless of their environment, the type of phone they are using, or which wireless carrier they have selected. We remain confident that TruePosition provides the only network-based technology that will meet these new performance requirements.”

The recent order from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will take effect eight-years after a date yet to be announced. This ruling follows FCC’s announcement regarding the new requirements for wireless carriers. These rules were specified in order to meet accuracy thresholds at the county or Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) level. This order also emphasizes the importance of further testing of indoor location accuracy and an overall control of location accuracy standards.

Officials explained that generally wireless carriers deliver E9-1-1 location information using one of the two methods such as handset-based, where the location information is generated by a GPS chip installed in the actual handset. The other method which is network-based involves installation of equipment in the carrier’s network.

This calculates the location information of the phone. Also the present FCC rules require carriers using handset-based technologies to locate 67 percent of calls within 50 meters and 95 percent of calls within 150 meters. Also carriers using network-based technologies have to locate 67 percent of calls within 100 meters and 95 percent of calls within 300 meters.

The new announcement made by the FCC reveals intentions to reduce the network-based accuracy rule and will make it mandatory for all existing wireless carriers to comply with a single accuracy standard of 50 meters and 150 meters, regardless of the location method used.

Officials added that new wireless carriers have to meet the new standard from now.  However the FCC will not dictate the technology that any carrier uses for meeting this new standard.

TruePosition U-TDOA locates any phone in any environment using Location Measurement Units (LMUs) installed at the cell towers which calculates a phone’s position. Over 75,000 TruePosition LMUs are deployed across the U.S., and TruePosition U-TDOA locates more than 60 million wireless 9-1-1 calls every year.

Recently TruePosition announced that it has acquired Rosum Corporation’s entire intellectual property portfolio.