Venable partner Jamie Barnett was quoted in a January 14, 2015 Communications Daily article on an upcoming Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote on wireless 911 accuracy rules. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the agency would consider an enhanced proposal centered on a dispatchable address for every call made from a wired or wireless device. The proposal emphasizes the use of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies to make wireless available.
"We are very pleased that the commission is moving to adopt a final rule on this issue with such speed and concern for public safety," said Barnett. "The commissioners and staff have worked hard to fix the problem of indoor location accuracy, but this is a problem of the carriers' own making. So, the FCC should use this opportunity to fix it once and for all, so we don’t spend years or decades longer struggling to locate indoor 911 callers using inaccurate, unverifiable location information."