ABSTRACT
Richard Hawkins has coined the term ‘keystone standardization initiative’ to describe an undertaking that will ‘have implications for those broad areas of technological development that relate directly to specific policy goals for national telecom system’. Overall, the Wireless E9-1-1 experience in Canada has been characterized by mixed and often contradictory results that correspond with Hawkins’ observations on strategic tendencies in standardization. Microcell’s application first established its claim to legitimacy and then went on to describe the success of an Alberta-based trial, highlighting the early efforts in Western Canada as evidence for the feasibility of Wireless E9-1-1 deployment in other parts of the country. Microcell’s proposed directives were ‘expressly designed to overcome the fundamental failing of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) approach’ by ensuring that key bottlenecks to Wireless E9-1-1 service would be made available to wireless service providers in advance of any FCC-like mandate.
