Indoor-location technology is not ready for E911 use, argues TIA

Federal regulators should refrain from adopting new location accuracy rules until indoor-positioning technology is truly ready for prime time, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), which represents manufacturers and suppliers of communications networks.

"Although TIA supports the development of improved location accuracy, many concerns remain regarding the impact of new requirements on innovation and whether technology is sufficiently developed to support the proposed mandate," said the organization in a filing regarding the FCC's ongoing proceeding on wireless E911 location-accuracy requirements.

Location-accuracy requirements should be based on technology "the claims for which can be confirmed with verified data using commercially available products," TIA said. The group stressed that indoor-location technologies are still quite nascent and may not be sufficiently developed to support an indoor location-accuracy requirement for determining a caller's location within 50 meters on a horizontal grid, as proposed by the FCC.