TruePosition Embraces Tightened Location Accuracy Standards Set By the FCC

TruePosition, Inc., a provider of wireless location technologies and solutions, announced its commitment to the recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate.

This FCC ruling requires wireless carriers to meet more stringent location accuracy requirements for Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1), which will take effect eight-years after a date yet to be announced, TruePosition explained.

For record, a year ago FCC introduced new requirements for wireless carriers to meet accuracy thresholds at the county or Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) level. The latest FCC mandate builds on the previous order that acknowledged the need for further testing of indoor location accuracy and an overall tightening of location accuracy standards over the next eight years.

Wireless carriers deliver The E9-1-1 location information is delivered either using handsets or using the network.

In the handset-based method, the location information is generated by a GPS chip installed in the actual handset, while in the network-based method, an equipment installed in the carrier’s network calculates the location information of the phone.

Under the current FCC rules, carriers are to use handset-based technologies to locate 67 percent of calls within 50 meters and 95 percent of calls within 150 meters. As far as the network-based technologies are concerned, the carriers are to locate 67 percent of calls within 100 meters and 95 percent of calls within 300 meters, using this technology.

According to the latest rulings, all existing wireless will be free to select the technology, but will have to comply with a single accuracy standard of 50 meters and 150 meters, regardless of the location method used.  New wireless carriers will be required to meet the new standard from now forward, FCC announced.

“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,” Chief Executive Officer for TruePosition Stephen Stuut noted in a statement. “We remain confident that TruePosition provides the only network-based technology that will meet these new performance requirements.”

TruePosition uses U-TDOA location technology that, according to the company can accurately and reliably locate any mobile phone in any environment, where other location technologies such as A-GPS cannot. The technology leverages Location Measurement Units (LMUs) installed at the cell towers to calculate a phone’s position. There are currently more than 75,000 TruePosition LMUs deployed across the U.S., and TruePosition U-TDOA locates more than 60 million wireless 9-1-1 calls every year, the company claimed in the release.

Earlier this month TruePosition announced that it has acquired all of Rosum Corporation's intellectual property portfolio.