WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — The Federal Communications Commission issued the following press release:

Consumers are increasingly abandoning landline telephony in favor of wireless communications,(1) and a majority of wireless calls are now made indoors.(2) However, during an emergency, wireless carriers are often unable to provide a 911 call center with accurate location information from the caller when the call is made indoors.

Recognizing this critical public safety concern, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) tasked the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) with evaluating the performance and viability of various location technologies in their ability to support indoor environments for E911 services.(3) To meet this objective, various members of the CSRIC will conduct testing to evaluate location technologies for improving indoor E911 services. The workshop will focus on the upcoming CSRIC test bed and issues related to improving indoor location accuracy.

The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau today released the agenda for a workshop on the upcoming test bed to improve indoor location accuracy for wireless 911 calls. The workshop will be held on Wednesday, October 24, 2012, from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room (TW-C305).

Individuals interested in attending this event may pre-register on-line at http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/event-registration.html, where they will be asked to provide their name, title, organization affiliation, and contact information. Individuals may also contact Deandrea Wilson at [email protected] or via phone at 202-418-0703.

Audio/video coverage of the meeting will be broadcast live with open captioning over the Internet from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live. The FCC’s webcast is free to the public. Those who watch the live video stream of the event may email event-related questions to [email protected].

Depending on the volume of questions and time constraints, the panel moderators will work to respond to as many questions as possible during the workshop.

Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities are available upon request. Please include a description of the accommodation you will need. Individuals making such requests must include their contact information should FCC staff need to contact them for more information. Requests should be made as early as possible. Please send an e-mail to [email protected] or call the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau: 202-418-0530 (voice), 202-418-0432 (TTY). For additional information about the workshop, please contact Patrick Donovan at (202) 418- 2413 or by email: [email protected], or Dana Zelman at (202) 418-0546 or by email: [email protected]

*View the document at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-1632A1.pdf

1 A June 2011 study by the National Center for Health Statistics showed that 16.4% of U.S. households with both
landline and wireless phones received all or almost all calls on wireless phones. Nearly 3 of every 10 American
homes (31.6%) overall and almost 6 in 10 households of adults aged 25–29 (58.1%) used only wireless telephones
during the first half of 2011. See Blumberg, S., and Luke, J., National Center for Health Statistics, Wireless
substitution: Early release of estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January-June 2011, at 2 (rel.
Dec. 21, 2011), available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless201112.pdf) (last visited Sept. 18, 2012).

2 A 2011 study showed that an average of 56% of wireless calls are made from indoors, up from 40% in 2003. See
J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Wireless Call Quality Performance Study, available at
http://www.jdpower.com/content/press-release/Kp2D0Ys/wireless-call-quality-performance-study.htm (last visited Sept. 18, 2012).

3 Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council III Working Group Descriptions and
Leadership (Aug. 1, 2012) at 3, available at http://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/advisory/csric3/wg-descriptions.pdf (last visited Sept. 17, 2012).