CSRIC Recommends Blue Ribbon Panel to Address How to Pay for Next Generation 911

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told the group much work remains to be done and CSRIC will be rechartered. “As we sit here today and we see what’s going on in Japan, we realize, as we've been made to realize before in the last years … how vitally important all of this is,” Genachowski said. “We also know that everyday we're not where we should be and that even more lives could be saved and more could be done if we can harness the technologies that we know are here.”

The nation’s 911 system must be modernized, Genachowski said. “I can no longer explain to people why they can’t text 911. … I don’t know what to say to people when they say if I take a photo of someone who just robbed a store how come I can’t just send that right to 911?” He said, “it’s a real tragedy that we aren’t where we need to be.”

CSRIC approved a report calling for a blue ribbon panel on next generation 911 that would look more closely at how improvements would be funded. The report also discusses the need for harmonized 911 standards, use of SMS to contact 911 and existing legislative, regulatory and liability issues that must be addressed.

"It’s very complicated in eight months or nine months to try to address all aspects of funding related to 911,” said Brian Fontes, president of the National Emergency Number Association and co-chair of a working group focused on next-generation 911. “Frankly, this report could not do justice to the multitude of issues related to that and thus we all agreed to the need to create this blue ribbon panel.”

"This is an issue of importance to all service providers, but in particular for wireless carriers, which alone collect over $2 billion each year … for the purpose of supporting and upgrading E-911 capabilities,” said Scott Bergmann, CTIA assistant vice president. “We continue to have concerns about suggestions for new, or additional, taxes, fees, surcharges.”

A second CSRIC report builds on 187 best practices for cybersecurity recommended by the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council VII. Of the best practices recommended, 41 percent are new and only 18 percent are the same as in the earlier report. Forty-seven of the new recommendations focus on wireless as the industry moves from 3G to 4G and smartphones proliferate. Another 21 new recommendations concern IP services including VoIP and cloud computing and 23 focus on network best practices. The report also focuses on identity management, encryption, vulnerability management and incident response, among other areas.

"There is a large concern, basically, on making security better within this environment overall,” said Gary Toretti of AT&T, who presented the report.

"I get a weekly report on the cyberattacks on our network and it’s staggering,” said Bill Smith, president of AT&T Network Operations and CSRIC co-chair. “The numbers are staggering but the quality of, shall we say high-impact attacks, are what’s really staggering to look at. This work could not be more timely or important to us.”

The group also signed off on a report concerning disaster plans for radio and TV stations and cable providers, building on an earlier report by the Media Security and Reliability Council, as well as reports on technical options for E-911 location accuracy and best practices implementation by carriers.

CSRIC is being rechartered with an eye on next generation-911, next-generation emergency alerting, improvements to the priority communications services and cybersecurity, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett. “I know it wasn’t clear sailing,” Barnett said. “I know there wasn’t always agreement or maybe even consensus. It sometimes does not come easy, but I appreciate your working through that.”