NENA REPORT POINTS TO $1 BILLION FUNDING GAP FOR E911

The report recommended that performance requirements for wireless carriers focus on near-term handset and cell-site activation goals. Enforcement steps should “guard against unintended consequences,” such as forced handset replacement, the report said. Handset replacement has been critical for Nextel, which last year called for lifting the FCC’s Dec. 31, 2005 deadline for wireless handsets to be Phase 2 capable. Nextel argued that as long as interim benchmarks for Phase 2 handsets were being met, the end date wasn’t needed or should be based on the market uptake of new handsets. The report, prepared by the Monitor Group, estimated a $1 billion funding gap for E911 deployment. It said nearly $2.3 billion was collected annually from dedicated funding sources while the annual cost was $6.1 billion for wireline and wireless E911. For wireless E911, the gap is $835 million. “Any funding injection should be specifically targeted to wireless E911, including wireline upgrades where wireline E911 is lacking,” the report said.

Monitor Group partner Phil Minasian said the handset replacement issue was connected to the report’s finding that PSAPs wouldn’t have widespread Phase 2 capability “for quite some time” at the current pace of deployment. Unless the pace improves, the report said less than 80% of the U.S. population would have access to wireless Phase 2 coverage before 2008. The concern has to do with the possibility of customers’ being asked to relinquish handsets that don’t have location capability ahead of PSAPs’ being able to process Phase 2 data, he said. “It’s fair to say that isn’t an issue we were able to lock down and get everybody to agree on,” he said. NENA SWAT Chmn. John Melcher said that “if carriers were to be 100 percent compliant by any date certain, it still doesn’t mean that PSAP readiness is there.” Melcher is deputy dir. of the Greater Harris County 911 Emergency Network in Houston. “Carrier compliance in an area where they are sending data that nobody can receive is still not ubiquitous 911,” he said. He called for a “focus on the big picture,” so everyone would be ready to handle such caller information.

On projected levels of PSAP readiness, Melcher said: “It was disturbingly shocking to the public safety leadership to find the level of readiness to be where it is.” The point is to raise awareness beyond Washington, he said.

Cingular, which took part in the SWAT effort, took issue with some findings. Brian Fontes, Cingular vp-federal relations, disagreed with the finding that $3 billion in congressional funding over the next 5 years would provide an improvement of just 10-15% in E911 readiness. “Wireless customers today contribute nearly $1 billion annually to state and local 911 funds,” he said: “Before requesting Congress to provide additional money to fund E911 deployment, states must stop raiding 911 funds.” Monitor Group’s Minasian told reporters at a briefing Thurs. the report didn’t make specific recommendations on congressional earmarks but outlined expected shortfalls in 911 funding.

Cingular also opposed any delay in the FCC mandate for wireless service providers using E911 handset solutions. “The FCC wants those carriers to have E911-capable phones in the hands of at least 95% of their customers by Dec. 31, 2005. A delay in E911 deployment runs counter to the SWAT objectives,” he said.

The Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) said in a report addendum it couldn’t support the contention that statewide E911 coordination consistently resulted in more effective implementation of the service. The report recommended that any state opting to receive federal E911 money should be required to have a statewide coordination effort. Some places, APCO said, wireless E911 had rolled out without a statewide effort. The group said it didn’t support any particular coordination model. It also said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support a return to full wireless cost recovery as a prerequisite for E911 implementation. The report said that as funding gaps for E911 were addressed, all parties in the 911 system should be entitled to recover costs. “The implementation of enhanced wireless 911 is a cost of doing business and should be treated as such,” APCO said. “PSAPs continue to struggle as the role of the LECs remains undefined,” APCO Pres. Vincent Stile said: “Local exchange carriers should be required to provide E911 services to PSAPs at reasonable rates.”

As for statewide coordination for E911, the National Assn. of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) said the SWAT recommendations didn’t go far enough. “Fear of state interference and unnecessary bureaucracy prevented a stronger endorsement in the final document, but these concerns can be addressed through state legislation,” NASNA said in an addendum. It also opposed any change in existing wireless service provider cost recovery rules.

The disagreements emerged despite a year-long effort for consensus. “It’s fair to say that people had higher expectations that this would lead to a greater degree of consensus,” one participant said.

The report also concluded: (1) States should have a bigger role in E911 implementation and distribution of funds. (2) More effective coordination was needed at all levels, particularly the state level. (3) E911 must be future- proofed to take into account emerging technologies such as VoIP. On funding, the report recommended federal grants be funneled through states “to ensure appropriate coordination and accountability.” It argued against a “national surcharge” on wireless and wireline customers and said wireless service providers should be entitled to recover costs, including options such as state-provided cost recovery and “self-recovery with ’safe harbor’ from legal challenges.” The report said wireless service provider timelines for E911 implementation should focus on near-term Phase 2-capable handset and network rollouts, adherence to consent decrees and responsiveness to PSAP requests. “Enforcement of current FCC requirements in a manner that would result in forced replacement of consumer handsets should be avoided,” it said.

On the issue of “future proofing” for new technologies such as VoIP, NENA’s Melcher said some basic issues could be addressed, such as interoperability, even if the direction of emerging technologies wasn’t clear. He said “911 in this country was built in silos, so none of the 911 switches in this country talk to each other. There’s some fundamental things we can do by networking our switches, making our databases more robust in the ability to pass data back and forth from one part of the country to the other.”

FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta said: “We are always encouraged to see stakeholders working together to ensure that wireless E911 is deployed as rapidly as possible. We will continue to do our part to assist in the dialog and ensure compliance with our rules and deployment schedules.”