"It just seems like there's a lot of activity around 911 and it's . . . poised for some pretty big things to happen here," Marty Feuerstein told TRDaily.

The FCC is expected to act at its Sept. 23 meeting on a long-awaited enhanced 911 (E911) location-accuracy order. Also, following up on recommendations of the national broadband plan (NBP), the FCC has said it plans to adopt by the end of next month a further notice of proposed rulemaking on next-generation 911 (NG-911) location-accuracy issues; that item is expected to be on the Sept. 23 agenda as a companion to the E911 item. The FCC then plans to follow up with a notice of inquiry in the fourth quarter on broader NG-911 matters.

Mr. Feuerstein noted that a number of 911 issues have been pending at the Commission since 2007, including the adoption of a unified location-accuracy standard and efforts to look for ways to improve indoor accuracy.

The FCC tentatively concluded in an NPRM that year that it should adopt a single, technology-neutral location-accuracy standard to replace the current network- and handset-based requirements (TRDaily, May 31, 2007). The FCC also said then that it would conduct studies on (1) improving in-building location accuracy, and (2) the use of hybrid technologies.

However, its location-accuracy rules got bogged down after a 2007 order approving measurement at the public safety answering point (PSAP) level was challenged in court and the Commission asked the court to vacate and remand the order in the wake of a decision by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International and the National Emergency Number Association to modify their position on location-accuracy testing (TRDaily, Aug. 1, 2008). The groups now favor measurement at the county level, a position endorsed by major carriers.

Mr. Feuerstein said that the location-accuracy order had appeared to be close to circulation to FCC Commissioners recently, but he said the concerns of some rural providers seem to have delayed action. He noted that representatives of rural carriers have urged the FCC to ensure that rural providers are able to obtain waivers of the new rules, saying many won't be able to comply with them. Some have also suggested that the Commission address these rural technical obstacles upfront rather than deal with them through individual waivers.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Polaris markets a software-based location product that can either be used by network-based providers or as a hybrid solution. Over the long-term, Mr. Feuerstein said the Commission should adopt a unified hybrid location-accuracy standard regardless of how PSAPs receive information. He said one standard will assist PSAPs, particularly with the deployment of NG-911, which will entail PSAPs receiving text messages, e-mails, and even video in addition to voice calls, including through voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) technologies. "The performance ought to be consistent across all those different ways," he added.

While there are a number of issues the government must address related to the deployment of 911 services, including funding and legal issues, Mr. Feuerstein said that "some of the technology things can be . . . fit into rules and deployed . . . fairly quickly." Regarding indoor coverage, for example, he said, "It's an area where the technology has been there for a good amount of time."

He expressed optimism that the NBP's recommendations related to the deployment of NG-911 services will help spur action. "The hope certainly is [that] the initiatives in there . . . certainly can be a catalyst to kind of drive some of these next-generation 911 requirements, and even some of the more shorter-term things like indoor accuracy," he said.

The NBP recommended several steps to help realize the deployment of nationwide NG-911. For example, it suggested that Congress consider "enacting a federal regulatory framework" for NG-911, and it said the Commission "should address IP-based communications devices, applications and services."

The NBP also said Congress should appropriate funding so the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has worked on such issues, can analyze the cost to deploy a next-generation system on a nationwide basis. It said that NHTSA should recommend public funding for NG-911 deployment.

Mr. Feuerstein said that due to government E911 deployment mandates in the 1990s, the U.S. has led the world in location technology and the creation of commercial location-based offerings, adding that "the broadband initiative can be another sort of impetus to go to the next generation of 911 and maintain the leadership, competitiveness, innovation - everything that went into the initial 911 systems." - Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Bob was an active board member for numerous trade associations and committees spanning multiple industries such as automotive, security, wireless telecommunications and trade publications. Recently, he was associated with the Connected Vehicle Trade Association (CVTA), Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC), and CTIA WIC and Specialty publications to name a few. Bob is also a frequently invited speaker and panel moderator at conferences such as CTIA, M2M United and GPS World.

He has more than 20 years of experience with fast-paced, highly dynamic organizations. Previously, he was the senior vice president of sales, marketing and business development at Aeris Communications. Prior to this role, he led the expansion of Aeris into Latin America as president of Aeris South America. In the years preceding his creation of Aeris South America, he was vice president of international development for Tetra Tech, a North American telecommunication infrastructure provider. In this role, he led the strategic initiative of expanding Tetra Tech's business operations globally. He joined Tetra Tech after leading a successful acquisition of Whalen & Company, where he was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, directing the deployment of next-generation wireless networks on behalf of wireless operators. He was also a key member of the senior management team at Nextel Communications during its start-up and early operational phases, where he helped launch the first iDEN network in the world, led a team that built the first PCS networks in the US in the mid-nineties and developed and led the first M2M company in South America.

Mr. Schoenfield holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from San Francisco State University, and a Certificate in Strategic Marketing of Information Technology from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

He has more than 20 years of experience in research, development and deployment of wireless products with companies including Metawave, Lucent Bell Labs, US WEST/AirTouch/Verizon and Nortel. Prior to joining the wireless industry, he was a visiting assistant professor with the Mobile & Portable Radio Research Group at Virginia Tech. At Lucent Bell Labs, he played a pivotal role in successfully commercializing the first CDMA systems in major carriers' networks, such as Sprint, Primeco, GTE, AirTouch and Bell Atlantic, resulting in Lucent capturing a market-leading position. While at Metawave, he conceived and championed development of the first smart antenna and self-optimizing network products deployed in the cellular industry.

Marty has consulted extensively for wireless carriers, vendors and venture capital firms in strategic analysis, system performance, product development, spectrum management, intellectual property, acquisitions and business case modeling. He has authored a host of articles in wireless technology publications, co-authored two books, and written several book chapters and many journal, magazine and conference papers. He is a frequent invited speaker and panel session moderator at wireless conferences and tradeshows. He is an inventor of 16 patents in wireless telecom, spanning the areas of communications systems, adaptive arrays, self-optimizing networks and position location methods.

Dr. Feuerstein has a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Math from Vanderbilt, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech. His Ph.D. dissertation was on algorithms and performance of spread spectrum methods for local area position location systems, such as those used for emergency responders and autonomous vehicle operations.

He has more than 20 years of experience in international business development and general management with Fortune 500 and start-up companies. He has worked for companies including Fiat Motor Co, Eli Lilly, Warner Communications and Sega Enterprises. During his career, he founded three successful multi-million dollar software publishing ventures including TecMagik, a $23 million publisher of video games and computer entertainment software; International Development Group, a strategic marketing and software publishing services consultancy for U.S., European and Asian companies; and a joint venture with Sega for the North American market.

Mr. Allegra earned a Master of Business Adminstration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Milan Polytechnic Institute.

He has over 20 years of experience in the wireless telecommunications industry. Bashar has worked in a variety of roles started his career in R&D and engineering. He has held positions at BT and Ionica in the UK where he also published a number of papers through IEEE. Later in his career he worked with Nokia Networks in the Middle East where he was responsible for technical marketing for its RAN solutions. In 2001, he joined Aircom International to set up its Middle East and Africa operations. During his nine years at Aircom he won significant contracts and grew the business to be one of the most profitable regions for the company.

Mr. Zako holds a Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng) degree and a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications and Communication Engineering from the University of London in the UK.

He has more than 18 years of experience in international business development, sales and marketing with Fortune 500 companies. He has worked for Siemens and Corning, mainly responsible for Multi-National Growth, expanding the customer portfolio to more than 70 accounts in 23 countries. He devised detailed marketing campaigns and sales strategies securing multimillion-dollar accounts in North, South, Central America and Europe. He secured and developed key global, government owned, and Fortune 500 company accounts such as Chevron, Shell, Telefonica to name a few.

Mr. Sotomayor is fluent in four languages and earned an MBA from the UAI in alliance with the LSE and UCLA, as well as a MIB (Master in International Business) from the Santiago University, Chile and a MSEE from the Technical University of Hanover, Germany

He has more than 15 years of experience in leading large professional services, support, education, partner network and business development operations at major technology companies. Previously, Mr. Saini was VP of Global Customer Services at Kabira Technologies, where he ran worldwide services operations to deliver and support Kabira software to more than 100 customers in 32 countries. He was an initial start-up team member at Kintana, and helped that company grow from a boutique consulting firm to be the recognized leader in IT governance. After Kintana was acquired by Mercury, Mr. Saini took on leadership of that company's strategic consulting division and professional services practice in the Western and Central U.S. and Canada. Mr. Saini began his career with Oracle in Bangalore, India.

Mr. Saini earned a BE degree in Computer Science and an MS degree in Economics from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science and a MBA degree from The Wharton School.

He has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, conceptualizing, developing, delivering, and supporting advanced wireless operator class systems. Previously, Zaheer was a founder & VP of Engineering at Azaire Networks, a leader in the FMC space. He has held various technical and management positions at both, startups and large global corporations like Ericsson, Ricoh, Ford Motor Company, Metricom & Mobility Networks. He has 9 patents granted in the field of broadband and telecommunications.

Mr. Allam has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Madras University, a Masters in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

After writing for TheWhereBusiness about less frequently discussed mobile technologies such as radio frequency pattern matching and other alternatives to determine location, the opportunity to pick Manlio Allegra's brain was too good to miss.

This interview goes beyond the specialised location methods that Polaris has been developing to great effect. In the course of describing the ins and outs of pattern matching, for example, Manlio also relates current developments to the state of the art in GPS, A-GPS, Wi-Fi and other technologies. Thus he has effectively given us a crisp overview of mobile location technology in general.

Acording to the Polaris Wireless website, the Polaris WLS technology enables Polaris products to outperform other solutions in dense urban and indoor environments where line-of-sight is not always available. Polaris says its products have greater accuracy and reliability and lower ownership and maintenance costs than other network-based solutions in suburban and rural environments.

Polaris WLS is currently the only technology that can perform high accuracy mass (bulk) location. The company describes this technology as "future-proof" and eminently suitable for 2G, 3G and 4G networks using control plane or secure user plane (SUPL).

The man at the helm for Polaris, Manlio Allegra, has more than 20 years of experience in international business development and general management with Fortune 500 and start-up companies. He holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and an MSEE in Electrical Engineering from Milan Polytechnic Institute.

TheWhereBusiness: You've been quoted as saying: "To attract a new wave of interest from business customers or consumers, next-generation commercial LBS must be able to rapidly and precisely locate any and all users automatically where people live and work - inside places like office buildings, shopping malls and homes." How key is the "automatic" part of such location, and how common is it right now?

Manlio Allegra: Right now, there tend to be different location technologies at play. On one side are network-based approaches, like Polaris's Wireless Location Signatures (WLS), which work well in high cell density environments like urban and indoor, but not as well in sparse rural. On the other are handset-based approaches using GPS and A-GPS, which work well in open sky suburban and rural, but not in urban and indoor. In either scenario, the LBS user gets good performance in some places but not others - hence the user experience can be far from ideal.

The "automatic" part of locating users everywhere is based on hybrid systems, blending both network-based and handset-based technologies. This delivers the best of both worlds. Hybrid systems can provide consistent location accuracy across all environments, including urban, suburban, rural and indoor.

Even more than that, intelligent approaches, like Polaris's best-of-breed hybrid system, mix and match appropriate technologies to provide the best overall user experience tailored to the particular LBS application - not just excellent location accuracy, but also short time to fix and low battery drain.

Hybrid systems deliver the automation that's required to transform next-gen LBS into the seamless and transparent location-awareness that defines other pervasive technologies. 

Polaris Wireless, a privately held wireless location company based in Santa Clara, California, is the global leader in providing high accuracy, software-based location systems for accurately determining the location of mobile phones.

The Polaris solution is ideal for E911 Phase II compliance services, wireless location-based service applications such as push advertising, yellow pages, social networking, friend or family tracking and enterprise applications such as work force and asset or fleet tracking applications. The solution can also be used by wireless operators for network optimisation analysis and by law enforcement agencies for lawful interception purposes.

Dr Martin Feuerstein, chief technology officer at Polaris, has been attending the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hearings on privacy. He gave TheWhereBusiness some insights into mobile privacy issues.

Privacy is currently a contentious topic in the mobile industry, the more so since Google Buzz, Google Street View, Facebook and other companies have been prominently in the news for their respective actions in harvesting user information or making this data or users' locations available to third parties. With Polaris's central position in location technology it was logical that the company might want to follow the FCC proceedings closely.

Dr Feuerstein is an observer who would know exactly what the hearings entail. He received a BE degree in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University, an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech. He has more than 20 years of experience in research, development and deployment of wireless products. During his career he has produced many publications and more than a dozen patents in wireless telecom.

TheWhereBusiness: How well informed are the law-makers about the whole issue of mobile and Internet privacy? Are they served by knowledgeable researchers or lobbyists? Do they get both sides of the story? 

Martin Feuerstein: In general, lawmakers and industry bodies in the US are now extremely sensitive to the privacy and security concerns of the public. This awareness has been fuelled by recent, high-profile Internet debacles (such as Facebook's privacy issues, Google's Wi-Fi spy scandal, large-scale identity theft cases, and so on). There is growing recognition that location information adds a new and potentially controversial dimension to the privacy and security debate.

As an example, the US Congress's House Judiciary Committee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties recently held hearings on revising the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). This was a public hearing with a number of interested parties, including privacy advocates like the Digital Due Process Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stating their viewpoints. Government regulators are definitely getting both sides of the story.

To create a framework for the industry, the Wireless Association (CTIA) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) have each independently developed guidelines on privacy and security for emerging location-based services. These guidelines involve the concept of "opt-in" where users' preferences are captured by their explicit acceptance of the service and associated information usage.

The guidelines also define how application and service providers may use personal information, such as recommended data retention practices. As in the Internet world, these guidelines are designed to provide consumers with confidence in how privacy and security will be handled.

TWB: Future legislation may possibly restrict the extent to which commercial enterprises may use people's personal information, but can it solve the problem of users blithely giving away their information? Recent research in the UK shows a surprising percentage of people happily share their location and other information with complete strangers.

MF: You've raised a critical point. The whole concept of effective privacy management has at its foundation the premise that users are both responsible and aware of how they share their personal information.

Societal norms are rapidly evolving as new technologies proliferate. The US Supreme Court noted last month that "rapid changes in the dynamics of communication and information transmission are evident, not just in the technology itself but in what society accepts as proper behaviour" [City of Ontario, California, and others versus Quon, Docket Number 08-1332, page 11, June 17, 2010]. An entire generation of teenagers, having grown up with the Internet, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, cell phones with cameras and so forth, harbour dramatically more open views about privacy compared to prior generations. Proper behaviour has shifted radically in the direction of sharing, not just with family and friends, but also in many cases with strangers.

Academic researchers have found that users do quite freely share their location if they are given user-friendly privacy policy controls and clear feedback about when and by whom their information is gathered [for more information on this topic, see Carnegie Mellon University's Mobile Commerce Lab presentation at the 2008 WPI Workshop on RF Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices].

Initially users are often sceptical about sharing, but those barriers are quickly eroded when the benefits of sharing become evident. These benefits could be in the form of social networks (meeting a friend at the nearby pub) or economic (receiving a useful and relevant coupon or advertisement), but there must be some enticing "reward" for sharing. Some surveys have reported that for a modest reward fee - about 30 euros - users would be willing to freely share their location information.

As with any aspect of human behaviour, government legislators cannot regulate common sense. Nor can technologists for that matter. But regulators and technologists can put in place frameworks which give users adequate controls - clear choices, conservative default settings, relevant feedback and even warnings when recommended norms are being exceeded. At that point, ultimately it's up to users to decide.

TWB: Is there a case to be made for special exceptions to privacy laws? I'm thinking of the monitoring of criminal or terror activities, and also the value of instantly knowing location and related information, such as pre-existing medical conditions, in emergency situations.

MF: Absolutely, precedents for special exceptions to privacy laws already exist. One example is emergency call services, such as E911/112, which provide location information to public safety call takers. When a user makes an emergency call, they are by definition making a request to public safety agencies, and hence privacy rules for location and caller identity are overridden. This approach is clearly in the public interest and saves lives.

Another exception is Lawfully Authorised Electronic Surveillance (LEAS), where law enforcement agencies can gather content of communications and associated information, such as location, which is specifically authorised by appropriate legal entities through judicial or administrative orders (for example, court orders, warrants). These capabilities provide law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to apprehend criminals and terrorists operating in the modern world of mobile communications.

Polaris provides high accuracy location products that service both the emergency call E911/112 and law enforcement markets, as well as consumer location-based services.

Today, these special exceptions are narrowly defined for specific purposes. It's possible that they could be expanded in the future for broader categories of emergency situations that are in the public good.

However, privacy concerns may limit the degree to which location and related information may be shared, even with emergency responders. Likely, users would need to opt in by signing up for a service that reports their information, such as a person with a special medical condition agreeing to share that information under particular circumstances.

Three years ago, the company launched its Wireless Location Signatures solution, which leverages RF pattern-matching technology, Allegra said. The solution lets law-enforcement agencies track the whereabouts and movements of suspected criminals. The stack resides on the agency's communications network. When activated, it sends a silent page to the suspect's phone; once the page is received, the suspect's phone then transmits the location data needed to do the tracking back to the network. All of this occurs without the suspect realizing it.

The implications of such a capability would be enormous for law enforcement, Allegra said. For example, the solution could trigger an alarm when two or more known criminals or suspects meet. Also, studies have shown that people's movements are highly predictable, he said. So, long-term tracking of known suspects could help law-enforcement and homeland-security officials prevent major crimes and terrorist attacks.

For security reasons, Allegra declined to identify which two countries the solution has been deployed in, only saying that the first deployment was in the Middle East. So far, the company has found no takers in the U.S., which has more-stringent privacy laws compared with the rest of the world.

"In the U.S., this would require a warrant because of the privacy laws," Allegra said. "In some countries, the level of privacy laws is much lower and less restrictive."

Allegra agreed that some level of privacy protection should be afforded to citizens - "There has to be some limits, because we're talking about the power of government" - but believes that laws could be amended to allow a solution that not only would help to catch criminals but also to predict what they might do next.

"Think about the power of something like this," he said. "In my mind, this is an incredible tool that one day will become as indispensible as 911 is today."

"We are committed to bringing robust and assured capabilities to our customers, and the Polaris location solution is the ideal enabler for our managed E911 Phase II service," said Andrew Silberstein, Vice President and General Manager of Globecomm Network Services. "Polaris differentiates our offering with superior performance and cost advantages that are equally available to our wireless-operator customers across the spectrum of network evolution."

Globecomm delivers turnkey total telecommunications solutions providing professional engineering services, managed network services and full lifecycle support to a variety of customers, including wireless operators. Globecomm will manage the E911 Phase II service from its network operations center in Hauppauge, N.Y. Polaris software will enable Globecomm GSM and CDMA hosted services customers to meet FCC Phase II requirements for providing real-time, highly precise location data to emergency responders when mobile-device users dial "911."

The Polaris solution requires no deployment of additional hardware by Globecomm or its customers; nor do the wireless operators have to make changes to their subscribers' handsets. The Globecomm managed E911 Phase II service will deliver complete network coverage and 100-percent service availability for its customers across their subscriber bases, as well as across 2G and 3G networks.

"This is an entirely new and critical distribution model for Polaris, as the partnership will expand our footprint to a much broader set of wireless operators who seek the simplicity and sustainable cost efficiency of Globecomm's value-added managed services," said Bhavin Shah, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Polaris Wireless. "We have a proven, high-accuracy location solution that 21 carriers and multiple law-enforcement agencies rely on around the world, but this partnership with Globecomm establishes the first managed E911 Phase II service based on Polaris technology."