NENA: 50% of PSAPs Not E-911 Phase II-Capable
More than 50% of U.S. PSAPs still don’t receive wireless E-911 Phase II location information, the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) said. NENA released a report as part of a Transportation Dept. wireless deployment project. Lack of PSAP funding and deployment coordination remain the main roadblocks to Phase II implementation, NENA and public safety officials told us.
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Densely populated areas see better Phase II deployment than rural areas, NENA said. As of Sept. 1, it said, 68% of counties had PSAPs receiving Phase I data, and 39% accepting Phase II calls, the study said. It said 77% of individual PSAPs were Phase I-capable and 49% Phase II-capable. That means 82% of the U.S. population was covered by Phase I and 59% by Phase II enabled PSAPs, NENA said.
Md. became the 8th state to report all its primary PSAPs are Phase II ready. Others are Conn., Me., Mass., Minn., N.H., R.I., Vt. and D.C. But NENA said most states still lag.
A major barrier to Phase II implementation remains lack of funds for PSAPs to upgrade, said APCO Dir.-Legal & Govt. Affairs Robert Gurss. “It’s money more than anything else from the PSAP prospective,” he said: “Technology is not the issue usually.” Congress last year passed the ENHANCE 911 Act, authorizing up to $250 million per year in grants for 911 system upgrades, but “to date no monies have been appropriated to fund such grants,” NENA said. It urged Congress to fund national 911 Implementation & Coordination Office development of a grant program to help PSAPs with 911 system upgrades.
“Unless federal funds show up, [money] has to come either from consumer fees or local governments,” Gurss said: “We would like Congress to appropriate enough money to create a meaningful grand program to help upgrade PSAP systems and realistically, they have to provide that funding. It has never been expected that federal funding would have covered” the whole transition to Phase II, but what the govt. has provided so far “is not enough to even help.”
Lack of PSAP coordination is another major problem, said NENA Pres. David Jones. Unlike in wireline, he said, “in wireless E-911 deployment I have to coordinate with several wireless carriers that serve my jurisdiction, local exchange carrier, vendors and many others. Those states that have a state-wide coordination demonstrated a faster Phase II deployment than those who don’t.” Jones cited a project he led in Spartanburg County, S.C., that proved very successful: “I started my process in October ‘01 and deployed Phase II in December ‘02, so it took only a year to resolve all issues. We take the lessons learned and apply them throughout the state.” Meanwhile, APCO launched “'Project Locate’ to educate PSAPs and help them through the process,” Gurss said.
NENA urged wireless carriers to “make all possible efforts to work cooperatively with PSAPs in the deployment of wireless E-911.” At least some major carriers deploying handset-based Phase II E-911 systems said they won’t meet an FCC deadline for 95% of embedded handsets to be GPS-enabled by Dec. 31. Rural Cellular Assn. and CTIA have asked for waivers but the FCC hasn’t ruled on those requests. “We will look at each waiver request individually and judge accordingly,” Jones said: “We'll look at respective carriers’ efforts to achieve Phase II, their efforts to educate their consumers. We'll never support blanket waivers.”