FCC, industry, and public safety officials today touted what they said were the benefits of the FCC’s new 911 location accuracy order (TRDaily, Jan. 29). Meanwhile, some 911 officials interviewed offered generally positive assessments of the new rules.
During a session at the National Emergency Number Association’s 911 Goes to Washington event, David Furth, deputy chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and Timothy May, NG-911 projects manager in the bureau, emphasized what they said were the key points of the order, including that it requires the establishment of a permanent test bed and the reporting of live call data for the first time, includes numerous reporting and monitoring mechanisms, and will lead to first responders being able to receive dispatchable location to find 911 callers through the use of millions of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access points.
“The opportunity here is tremendous,” Mr. May said. He said the reporting and monitoring of call data will show whether carriers are “barely passing or excelling,” which will provide them an incentive “to do better than pass/fail.”
Mr. Furth said the FCC is hoping that the new rules will lead to “realistic” but “aggressive” location accuracy technology development. He also said the data that will be produced can hopefully be “actionable” and lead to cooperation between carriers and public safety answering points (PSAPs) and improved location accuracy, avoiding the need for further FCC intervention. He stressed that PSAPs are in the best position to monitor the progress of carriers.
Under the order, carriers will be required to provide to requesting PSAPs live 911 call data, which will let the PSAPs assess whether the performance of carriers in their areas is consistent with the performance seen in six test cities. If the performance in their areas is below mandated thresholds, PSAPs can seek enforcement of the rules after first attempting to resolve the issue with carriers.
During another session, representatives of three national wireless carriers emphasized the benefits of being able to provide dispatchable location to first responders using what they said were a growing number devices, particularly Bluetooth devices.
The four national wireless carriers, NENA, and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International hammered out a 911 location accuracy road map (TRDaily, Nov. 14, 2014), portions of which made it into the FCC’s order.
Don Brittingham, vice president-national security and public safety policy for Verizon Communications, Inc., cited market research that there will be 19 billion global Bluetooth devices in the coming years.
Some skeptics of using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access points to provide indoor 911 location accuracy have questioned whether the safety of consumers would be jeopardized if power goes out.
Trey Forgety, NENA’s director-government affairs and chief regulatory counsel, suggested that would not occur because Bluetooth devices can operate for long periods of time “without access to commercial power,” and he also said that PSAPs would also have access to enhanced location coordinates.
Meanwhile, several 911 officials said in interviews at the NENA event today that they are generally supportive of the 911 order, which drew criticism before it was released because of its more lenient deployment milestones than rules proposed last year (TRDaily, Feb. 20, 2014) and then the order as originally drafted. A number of public safety entities also criticized the road map as originally introduced.
Richard Muscat, director-regulatory affairs for the Bexar Metro 911 Network District in San Antonio, Texas, said he was pleased with the focus on providing first responders with a dispatchable location to find callers.
“I think that it’s a huge step in the right direction,” added Evelyn Bailey, executive director of the National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators. She noted that the rules proposed last year did not lay out a definitive plan for the provisioning of dispatchable location. “This information is critical to the first responders,” she said.
The Greater Harris County 9-1-1 Emergency Network in Houston “is in support of any improvement to 9-1-1 service,” said Sonya Clauson, public information officer for the agency. “We will continue to work closely with our wireless carriers to ensure that location accuracy meets or exceeds the current and future mandates.”
Thera Bradshaw, executive director of the State of Hawaii Enhanced 9-1-1 Board, which supported the rules proposed last year and criticized the original version of the road map, said she was still studying the FCC’s order. “The concern that I have is the blending of indoor/outdoor” calls, she said. She also said she wishes that the deployment milestones “were moved up some – and hopefully it will happen naturally.”
Meanwhile, some 911 officials attending the NENA event pushed back today at recent news reports highlighting the deaths of 911 callers after they could not be located by first responders. They said the reports were misleading.
Ms. Bailey said the reports showed the need for PSAPs to have mapping data for neighboring jurisdictions.
Ms. Clauson cited a TV report that said that only 64% of all calls in her area included location information, when she noted that the percentage was 87% for calls lasting 30 seconds. – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com
Courtesy TRDaily