The FCC has granted limited waivers to several small wireless carriers that extend the hardly enforced deadlines to meet enhanced 911 (E911) communications requirements. The E911 mandate supposedly took effect at the end of last year, but carriers that have experienced user reluctance to switch to handsets capable of handling E911 could petition for an extension to the deadline for having 95 percent of subscribers hooked up to E911 services. The FCC granted waivers to 13 carriers, mostly rural Tier III carriers, which push the deadline back until the end of June, October and, in some cases, December. The FCC recently granted extensions to Alltel, Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless and others.
For more on E911 and FCC waivers:
- check out this article from TelecomWeb