FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for March 2025 Open Meeting
On March 6, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a tentative agenda for its next Open Meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 27 at 10:30 a.m. ET. The Commission released public drafts of three of the four items expected to be considered at the Open Meeting, which are detailed below. The fourth item involves a restricted adjudicatory matter from the Media Bureau and it will not be released until after the Commission has voted on the item at the Open Meeting.
1. Exploring Alternatives to GPS (WT Docket No. 25-110). The Commission will vote on a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) to explore technological solutions for promoting the development of Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) data systems as an alternative to traditional Global Positioning System (GPS) operations. The NOI, citing the benefits of PNT to national security, public safety and economic stability, will seek comment on space-based and terrestrial solutions for the resiliency of PNT, the benefits and challenges of certain PNT technologies and solutions, the security of PNT technologies, test beds and public-private partnerships for the development of PNT and how the Commission should promulgate rules to address the availability of PNT technologies. Some proposed alternatives to GPS mentioned by the FCC include satellites, television broadcast infrastructure, ground-based transmitters and user equipment positioning. The NOI also will seek comment on challenges to adopting alternative PNT solutions, such as geographic constraints, spectrum availability, infrastructure, resiliency and performance.
The NOI reflects concerns about the extent of reliance on GPS for PNT purposes given the susceptibility of GPS to jamming and spoofing, which is intended to be addressed in part through a refresh of the GPS constellation with more resilient satellites. As a result, the NOI comes after the FCC opened inquiries on the degree to which devices in the U.S. impermissibly receive foreign space-based PNT services, including from Chinese- and Russian-operated systems, and on the heels of a recent petition for rulemaking filed by NextNav Inc. to reconfigure the lower 900 megahertz (MHz) band and create new rules to enable the deployment of a 5G terrestrial PNT network. NextNav has claimed that such a network could serve as a “high-quality, terrestrial complement and backup” to GPS. The comments in response to the NextNav petition for rulemaking were mixed, with many parties, including trade associations and industry, opposing NextNav’s proposal. The NOI cites NextNav’s claims that its PNT technology “will enable the rapid deployment of a nationwide terrestrial PNT network to back up and complement GPS” and “provide location accuracy that would provide a better service experience and meet the Commission’s horizontal indoor location requirement and 3-meter z-axis requirement.” The NOI seeks comment on NextNav’s proposals, indicating the Commission’s interest in exploring the benefits and challenges of NextNav’s proposed plans but explicitly takes no position on the petition.
If adopted in its current form, comments to the NOI would be due 30 days after release of the item.
2. Ensuring NG911 Resiliency, Reliability, Interoperability and Accessibility (PS Docket Nos. 21-479, 13-75). The draft item would have the FCC consider a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) that proposes new rules to ensure the “resiliency, reliability, interoperability, and accessibility” of Next Generation 911 (NG911) networks. Legacy 911 networks across the country are being replaced with NG911, which relies on IP-based infrastructure able to support new capabilities like text, video and data that can help local authorities better respond to those in need of emergency assistance. However, the draft notes that recent outages affecting 911 suggest “that some critical elements of NG911 networks may not adequately be covered” by the existing 911 reliability rules.
Through the NPRM the FCC seeks to address these gaps with proposals designed to guarantee the reliable delivery of 911 traffic to public safety answering points (PSAPs) and the interoperability between 911 networks in different states. These include proposals to (a) update the definition of “covered 911 service provider” in the existing 911 reliability rules to ensure the rules apply to service providers who control or operate “critical pathways and components in NG911 networks”; (b) update the reliability standards for providers of critical NG911 functions to ensure the reliable delivery of 911 traffic to NG911 delivery points; (c) adopt NG911 interoperability requirements for the interstate transfer of 911 traffic between Emergency Services IP Networks (ESInets) to ensure that PSAPs can transfer 911 calls and call data to other PSAPs across state borders if needed; (d) modify the certification and oversight mechanisms in the existing 911 reliability rules to improve reliability and interoperability in NG911 systems while minimizing burdens on service providers; and (e) empower state and local 911 authorities to obtain reliability and interoperability certifications directly from covered 911 service providers so that they can more easily address reliability and interoperability concerns within their respective jurisdictions.
If adopted in its current form, comments would be due 45 days after publication of the FNPRM in the Federal Register.
3. Strengthening 911 Location Accuracy Rules (PS Docket No. 07-114). The draft item would have the FCC consider a FNPRM regarding the technical standards for providing wireless customers’ vertical location information to 911 call centers and first responders. For several years, the FCC has required wireless service providers to provide callers’ vertical location information (z-axis) in addition to horizontal location (x/y-axes) so that responders could find callers within multistory buildings. In response to concerns regarding the usefulness of the currently mandated height information, the draft FNPRM proposes to adopt the Height Above Ground Level (AGL) standard, which will be more useful to first responders than the existing Height Above Ellipsoid (HAE) standard.
When the HAE standard was adopted, it reflected the general consensus regarding the appropriate measure for z-axis data, although HAE measurements would need to be translated into another format to be actionable, and wireless providers were not required to make that translation. Since then, new tools and data sources have emerged that will make the translation into AGL easier, and the draft item would now propose requiring wireless providers to provide both HAE and AGL data, and seeks comment on requiring wireless providers to provide floor level estimates as well. In addition, the draft proposes requiring the AGL data to be tested in dense urban, urban, suburban, and rural environments, and giving small wireless providers and public safety organizations access to the testing results, with public safety organization able to challenge them.
The draft FNPRM also seeks comment on a number of related issues such as how to increase the number of calls that convey the dispatchable location information, whether a centralized complaint portal should be created, how dispatchable location information could be improved for text-to-911 services, and whether to eliminate certain legacy rules that may now be obsolete.
If adopted in its current form, comments would be due 30 days after publication of the FNPRM in the Federal Register.
