Sprint chooses Qualcomm location solution to satisfy E-911 mandate
For carriers that choose a handset solution, the FCC Phase II mandate requires that by Oct. 1, 2001, 67% of position-enabled handsets must be locatable to within 50 meters. Under controlled trial conditions earlier this year, Sprint PCS was able to locate this percentage of test calls to less than 30 meters. Sprint PCS will begin offering the wireless assisted GPS-capable handsets in the second half of 2001.
Charles Levine, Sprint PCS chief operating officer, said that the company has an advantage by using one digital technology based on one frequency because it can deploy a single location technology. Other carriers may have to deploy a potentially more expensive overlay solution to accommodate multiple technologies operating at multiple frequencies. Also, because it selected CDMA five years ago, the carrier has the added benefit of GPS timing, which it uses to synchronize calls today, and which will provide with better accuracy for E-911 Phase II, he said.
"APCO has been a firm supporter of the FCC's E-911 efforts to address a key safety issue facing the public today—how to respond to, and safeguard, the more than 100,000 mobile phone users who call emergency dispatchers every day," said Lyle Gallagher, president of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International. "Sprint PCS is to be commended for being the first out of the box to deploy the kind of highly accurate location system the public safety community needs to most effectively respond to callers in need. As they say in the emergency industry, ‘time is tissue,' and precise location information will guide rescuers right to the caller in trouble, rather than forcing them to waste precious time searching for them. This is really a positive step for the calling public and the public safety community, and we hope to see other major carriers take equally positive steps to protect lives and property."
The gpsOne system, tightly integrated into the Qualcomm MSM3300 Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipset and built into the phones that Sprint PCS will be deploy in the second half of 2001, improves conventional GPS by combining information from both GPS satellites and CDMA-based wireless networks to locate a wireless CDMA handset. Although traditional GPS receivers may take several minutes to provide a location fix, the gpsOne solution generally locates callers within a few seconds. The technology allows callers to be located in a wide range of challenging call environments where normal GPS receivers will not work, including inside houses and moving vehicles, under heavy foliage and in urban street canyons, usually within 30 meters.
The Forrester Group has called location-based services the "killer app" for mobile data applications and services, and believes that thin-client, location-relevant services will dominate the mobile e-commerce and consumer wireless data markets. Some market studies predict that the location-based services industry may be worth as much as $32 billion annually by 2005.
During the next year, Sprint PCS will work with its major network vendors to test and install the necessary network infrastructure to support the handsets. These new network systems will calculate a 911 caller's position and route the calls to the appropriate public safety answering points.
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Edited by Ellen Jensen
Managing Editor, Wireless Networks Online