The FCC by June will allow employees and visitors to dial 911 directly rather than having to dial “9” first, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Ajit Pai announced today.  Today’s statement said that people will be able to dial 911 directly or continue to dial 9-911 to get emergency assistance.

Mr. Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly had urged Mr. Wheeler to direct that the FCC’s MLTS (multi-line telephone system) equipment be modified so people could dial 911 directly, but Mr. Wheeler had resisted until now.

“Whenever Americans dial 911, they expect and deserve to reach emergency personnel who can assist them in their time of need. And over the course of the past year, we have seen tremendous progress in ensuring that dialing 911 always works. Facilities across the country have been configuring their multi-line telephone systems (MLTS) so that consumers do not need to dial a ‘9’or any other access code before dialing 911,” Messrs. Wheeler and Pai said in their statement.

“We are pleased to announce that the FCC is joining the ranks of those leading on this issue,” they added. “Beginning in June, the phone system at the FCC’s headquarters will be configured so that anyone in the building can reach emergency services by dialing ‘911.’

“We hope that others in the federal government as well as state and local governments will follow this example,” the statement added. “In an emergency, government employees and members of the public that visit government buildings should not have to think about whether an access code is required—dialing 911 should always work.”

Mr. Pai began looking into the MLTS issue last year in the wake of the death of a woman in a Texas hotel after her 9-year-old daughter was not able to reach 911 while her mother was being stabbed (TRDaily, Jan. 13, 2014). The girl could not reach 911 because she didn’t dial “9” first.

Since Mr. Pai’s inquiry began, a number of hotels have moved to enable guests to call 911 directly.

By the end of this year, the MLTS problems should be solved at 24 hotel chains, including Hilton, Marriott, Holiday Inn, and Sheraton, Mr. Pai has said. Mr. Pai also has said that 50% of surveyed MLTS vendors now ship all of their products with a default setting of direct 911 dialing, and all vendors said they recommend that their products be set up that way.

More recently, Mr. Pai turned his sights on the FCC, arguing that the FCC should set an example by reconfiguring its phone system so employees and visitors can call 911 without first dialing “9” (TRDaily, Jan. 23). Mr. O’Rielly had raised that issue in a June 2014 blog posting (TRDaily, June 2, 2014).

At the FCC’s Jan. 29 meeting, Mr. Wheeler praised Mr. Pai’s MLTS advocacy (TRDaily, Jan. 29). “You have identified an issue, you have moved persistently, and you are producing results,” he said. “I mean, there’s no place that I sleep that won’t be covered by that.”

But when asked during a news conference after the meeting about Mr. Pai’s comments concerning MLTS upgrades at the FCC, Mr. Wheeler said that he had talked to Mr. Pai about the issue but that the Commission’s building was “very different” than a hotel or motel, in part because people have to pass through security to get in.

He also said that FCC employees know they have to dial “9” to get 911, and he said nearly all visitors have mobile phones. Asked whether the FCC was setting a good example, he replied that it was “an example that applies throughout the federal government.”

Mr. Pai criticized Mr. Wheeler’s comments after he made them.  The sub-headline on today’s Wheeler/Pai statement said the phone system change would occur “by June 1,” while the statement said “in June.” An FCC spokesman said “by June 1” was correct.

Public safety groups today praised the FCC’s planned MLTS action.

“NENA is pleased that Chairman Wheeler and Commissioner Pai have worked constructively to establish the FCC as a leader in 9-1-1 access by ensuring that Commission staff and visitors can directly access 9-1-1,” said Trey Forgety, director-government affairs for the National Emergency Number Association. “As NENA has repeatedly emphasized, direct access to 9-1-1 is only one of the major problems facing users of Multi-Line Telephone Systems (MLTS). We hope that this first step at the Commission foretells stronger FCC action to ensure that all MLTS will soon provide direct access to 9-1-1, accurate and granular location data, on-site notification of guard posts or front desks, and an end to ineffective local termination of 9-1-1 calls.”

“We commend the Commission on its continued leadership with this very important issue,” said Derek Poarch, executive director of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International. “In this matter, leading by example is huge.” – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com