Emergency Number Group to Lobby for VoIP-PSAP Legislation
Emergency number representatives will storm the Hill today (Wed.) at the behest of the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) and several legislative and regulatory players who spoke at its conference. Timed to coincide with a report on the group’s E-911 program, the convention Tues. focused on how public safety access points (PSAPs) can grab funding and attention from D.C. policymakers. Several Hill staffers urged PSAP representatives to support pending legislation in both houses that would resolve liability issues for VoIP providers.
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“We believe the federal government has to play an active role” in standardizing IP-based PSAPs nationwide, NENA Pres. David Jones said: “No more patchwork systems.”
The consensus among panelists was PSAPs would benefit from national attention. Comcare Dir. David Aylward said current call integration ability is “worse than the pizza industry,” which has developed sophisticated, IP-based features. T-Mobile Dir.-Govt. Affairs Jim Nixon, also on Md.’s 911 board, said that state has far too many emergency networks -- he said he hopes to leverage the statewide fiber network to create a standardized Md. 911 backbone. RoxAnn Brown, dir.-Nashville Emergency Communications Center, said when she first arrived at her local PSAP, there was no way to automatically re-route misplaced information. “It’s a sad, sad state of affairs” that’s essentially the case today, she said.
This inconsistency with IP-related calling has “prevented the VoIP industry from advertising safety,” Aylward said, urging NENA to “play its part.” Pointing to an overhead sprinkler system in the room, Aylward said it wasn’t there “through regulation,” but “through the good efforts of the plaintiff’s bar” who sued hotels every time a fire killed a guest. He urged PSAPs to take the necessary steps to get VoIP emergency calls integrated into their systems. Nixon focused on getting govt. funding for upgrades, saying: “You can spend all the money you want on first responders… but if you can’t get to and through the PSAP, it can’t get squat.”
Hill staffers asked NENA members to bring attention to issues deemed important by PSAPs and their bosses. “Getting the appropriators’ attention on [funding from 2004 legislation] is very important,” said Mike Szymanski, telecom aide to Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.). “They won’t fund anything unless they're approached,” he added. He and Dana Lichtenberg, aide to Rep. Gordon (D-Tenn.), urged specific support of HR-2418 and a similar bill, S-1063. Lobbying Homeland Security Committee members “wouldn’t be a bad idea,” said Lichtenberg, because PSAPs were specifically mentioned in the Sept. 11 Commission report as an important national safety element needing attention.
Lichtenberg said the final House bill would likely differ slightly from the Senate version, recently passed out of committee, especially on waiver issues. However, she said “some attention will be paid to rural access.” The differences should be small, she said, praising the Senate version.
At the same time, Bells, VoIP carriers, and PSAPs all have a role in bringing IP-based calls into the E-911 fold, said FCC Wireline Competition Bureau Chief Tom Navin. “There’s nothing inherent to the existing system that prevents… networks from handling IP traffic,” he said. He said cable VoIP has indicated compliance with FCC rules, for example. All involved entities are making understandable decisions, he said, but they could all be moving faster to resolve non-native telephone number use -- the principle problem when nomadic VoIP calls go to the wrong PSAP. Just like it is with wireless, he said, “get the call to the correct public safety access point” and there won’t be a problem.