Sprint Nextel seeks More Time to Find 911 Callers

Sprint Nextel on Thursday asked the FCC for more time to meet a December 31 deadline that 95 percent of its customers' wireless phones be capable of identifying the location of a user making a 911 emergency call. The No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier will only reach 80 percent by the end of this year and will need until the end of 2007 to reach the 95 percent goal. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat, had urged that the approval of Sprint's acquisition of Nextel be conditioned on the companies complying with the deadline or coming up with a plan to do so. But no such condition was attached.
[SOURCE: Reuters]