Officials in California are working on a transition plan for the deployment of next-generation 911 (NG-911) service in the state, and they expect it to take about two years to complete the plan, an official said today during a webinar organized by the National 911 Program.

William Anderson, interim manager of the 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Branch within the Public Safety Communications Office in the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said that among the challenges that the state and its 451 public safety answering points (PSAPs) face in NG-911 deployment are securing adequate funding, determining whether there should be statewide or regional deployments, developing a procurement vehicle, and ensuring the security of any system.

Another challenge will be governance, said Mr. Anderson, noting that state officials do not have authority over PSAPs.

Mr. Anderson said the cost of an NG-911 system will be about twice that of the cost of the legacy network. He said California currently imposes a surcharge on interstate voice telephone services, but with voice communications decreasing, so are revenues.

There has been an effort to look at the funding models of other states with an expectation to going to the California Legislature to seek changes to the state’s 911 funding regime, Mr. Anderson said. For example, he said, Oregon charges a 75-cent surcharge per line. Mr. Anderson also described the five NG-911-related pilots that have been undertaken in California.

Karen Wong, assistant director of the Public Safety Communications Office and the state’s point of contact (SPOC) for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), stressed the need to incorporate NG-911 into the deployment of a nationwide public safety broadband network, as well as the importance of covering rural areas both with broadband services and NG-911. When NG-911 is deployed in California, “all the PSAPs will be treated equally,” she pledged.

Alicia Fuller, telecommunications systems manager in Mr. Anderson’s branch, discussed a 911 dashboard in the works that will allow the tracking of 911 calls in the state on a real-time basis. The state’s PSAPs
received more than 28 million 911 calls last year, 76% of which came from wireless devices.

The dashboard is “currently in a display phase,” Ms. Fuller said, which will be followed by a pilot phase “once the objectives are clearly developed.”

She stressed the importance of having “a common operating picture” so all PSAPs see the same data in the same form.

The dashboard will enable the tracking of 911 calls per PSAP and statewide, including per hour and per minute, by wireless carrier, by average call volume, with  high and low volume alerts, and with Phase II
calls plotted on a map of the state. The dashboard will allow officials to keep abreast of the health of the 911 system, including any denial of service attacks, as well as wireless carrier metrics, Ms. Fuller said.

Also during today’s webinar, two officials from the Rural Utilities Service emphasized that agency loans can be used for expanding and improving 911 access, including deploying NG-911, and integrated emergency communications systems in rural areas. Such loan authorization was included in the 2008 Farm Bill.

Chris McLean, assistant RUS administrator-electric programs, said the assets that RUS loans can help deploy can be leveraged by FirstNet in rolling out public safety broadband offerings in rural areas. He was
joined on the webinar by Keith Adams, RUS’s assistant administrator-telecom programs. – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com