Genachowski Tells CSRIC to Focus on Wireless 911 Calls After Disaster Strikes
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked the reconstituted Communications Security, Reliability & Interoperability Council to make 911 call prioritization a key focus as it starts work. Genachowski was not at Friday’s CSRIC meeting, but sent a letter, which Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett read at the start of the session. The FCC is also asking questions about 911 prioritization in a rulemaking approved Thursday (CD Sept 23 p6).
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"I am charging CSRIC with recommending ways to ensure that 911 is available when disasters spark a surge in mobile network use,” Genachowski said. “That includes how 911 traffic might be prioritized in such situations. The Commission will benefit from your knowledge and expertise with communications networks, public safety, and consumers."
Genachowski also directed CSRIC to look closely at lessons learned from last month’s Virginia earthquake and Hurricane Irene, which followed a few days later. “I am also directing CSRIC to develop best practices to ensure that communications providers are prepared for natural disasters and able to restore service quickly in their aftermath,” he wrote.
The hurricane took 6,500 cell sites offline temporarily and cut service to 210,000 wireline customers (CD Aug 30 p1). “As the FCC has reviewed these events, it’s clear that our communications system in general worked effectively and played a critical role in emergency response,” Genachowski said. Carrier cell sites were restored at a “remarkable rate” of almost 40 percent per day in the days following Hurricane Irene,” he said. While some 911 calls had to be rerouted to other public safety answering points, “no PSAP was completely inoperable."
The NPRM asks a battery of questions about 911 prioritization (http://xrl.us/bmeace). “Are wireless providers currently prioritizing 911 calls to their respective radio access networks (both for GSM and CDMA networks)?” the notice asks. “What are the costs of incorporating 911 prioritization technology, to the extent it exists, into these networks? What are the qualitative and quantitative benefits of doing so? Are 911 prioritization technologies for GSM or CDMA networks used outside of the United States today, and if so, where and what has been the experience with these technologies, including with respect to their reliability?” The FCC also asks to what extent would the ability to send text messages to 911 improve the ability of consumers to reach 911 during a major disaster by reducing network congestion?
Next up for the CSRIC, the Next-Generation 911 Working Group is slated to prepare a report for the group’s December meeting on ongoing work on NG911 architecture and standards development with an eye on gaps that have emerged that need to be filled. “It’s essentially taking a look at what already exists, giving it a level of urgency and then identifying what gaps might exist in terms of existing standards,” said Laurie Flaherty of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, co-chair of the working group. The group will also report on the readiness of 911 systems to accept NG911 calls and data at the December meeting. Brian Fontes, CEO of the National Emergency Number Association, the group’s other co-chair, said the reports will be submitted as part of an FCC rulemaking approved by the commission Thursday. “This is an opportunity to do work that’s relevant to an existing proceeding in an existing timeframe,” Fontes said. “The timeframe is very ambitious. This isn’t the first time we've been given ambitious timeframes.”