FCC GPS Mandated For Mobile Phones by 2018

The Federal Communications Commission is drawing a line in the sand regarding GPS availability in mobile phones.

The FCC has ruled that all operators must integrate GPS into mobile phones by 2018.

“The Federal Communications Commission will require all telephone service providers to use accuracy standards based on GPS capable handsets, and Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers will have to require new subscribers to use GPS enabled handsets to pinpoint the location of 911 calls, by 2018,” writes Travis Sanford of Courthouse News Service.

While the new mandate sounds cumbersome in theory, in reality, the burdens to meet the new demands shouldn’t be terrific.

At current adoption rates, the FCC estimates that even without the new rules, 85 percent of cell phone users would have GPS capable handsets by 2018, thus minimizing the burden of complying with the new rules.

For the time being, cellular networks remain obligated by law to provide the location of 911 calls by way of GPS enabled handsets or from triangulating the caller’s location using only cell towers.