911 Directors Fix on States’ Next-Gen Role, Indoor Location Testing

States should receive incentives to become early adopters of next-generation 911, said David Furth, deputy chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau. “They're taking a greater risk than everyone else but they're also gaining a valuable experience that everyone can benefit from.” He briefed the audience on the bureau’s Feb. 22 report to Congress on the legal and regulatory framework appropriate for new 911 technology. He said one of the report’s big focuses was removing jurisdictional and regulatory barriers. The bureau wasn’t required to seek feedback but did and received it in the form of 24 “excellent” comments and 14 reply comments, he said, citing information from NENA, industry and others. “We coordinated with NHTSA [the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration], with NTIA, with DHS [the Department of Homeland Security].” The current framework for governing 911 “works,” he said, noting the recommendation not to overhaul the way states oversee 911 centers and the way the FCC oversees the carriers. Congress should “promote nationwide standards” for an NG-911 network despite the networks developing in a state and local way, he said, stressing the importance of consistency. “Some states have been more proactive than others,” Furth said. But it’s “important for state governments to engage” to move the initiatives forward in their jurisdiction, he said, noting that a statewide push will help with coordination among localities. “Next-generation 911 doesn’t have to be developed in a vacuum.” The IP networks can be used for multiple purposes, he added, supporting other elements beyond 911. Developing initiatives like states’ individual Emergency Services IP networks and FirstNet should not happen in isolation, he said.

The top priority of the National 911 Office is guidelines for state next-generation 911 legislative language, released last fall, said Laurie Flaherty, coordinator of that program within the U.S. Department of Transportation. “The purpose of it is to provide ideas for you at the state and local level,” she said. She mentioned narrowly written statutes in need of updating and described efforts to track 2011 911 legislation throughout the states to get a sense of how states are progressing toward NG-911. The office hopes to collect data in 2013, she said. There’s a report on the office’s 911 grant program coming this spring, she said. “The states varied in how they spent their money.” Roughly a third spent money on statewide initiatives, a third spent the money on local initiatives and a third spent their money in some combination of those first two categories. She also described the office’s creation of guidelines for voluntary statewide 911 system assessment, focused on operations and with eight categories of guidelines assessed, conducted by peer teams.

Funding is “core to the success of next-generation 911,” Furth said. The mechanisms “need to be rethought.” The bureau thinks 911 funds should be directed specifically for the development of 911 systems, he said. States should also revise their liability regimes, he said. The FCC is trying to amend its own regulations to reflect the report’s principles, he said. Regional approaches may be helpful to approaching some of the data 911 centers will be coordinating, he said. The FCC’s move to next-generation 911 begins with text-to-911, said FCC Policy Analyst Tim May during a panel on the topic. He noted different texting trials under way in areas such as Tennessee, Vermont, York County, Va., and Durham, N.C. Text messaging is often the most reliable means of communicating during disaster, added FCC Attorney-Adviser Aaron Garza, noting the FCC’s NPRM and further NPRM on text-to-911. He stressed the need for a uniform near-term implementation if 911 centers want to avoid confusion, and discussed the FCC’s consideration of whether to require all carriers to offer the service by May 15, 2014, the date the four major carriers have committed to offering the service on.

Text-to-911 deployments continue. Frederick County, Md., will launch a deployment with Verizon within days, Furth said. Another Web-based deployment with Verizon launched last week in the New York county of Steuben, its E911 Director David Hopkins told us.

The 911 centers “retain the discretion on whether to accept text messages,” Garza said. The FCC thinks they're in the best position to judge whether it’s feasible or desirable to accept them, he said. He called the Web delivery and text-to-TTY options as lower-cost options to 911 centers that aren’t next-generation capable. An automatic bounceback requirement will help alleviate confusion, and the FCC is investigating whether to require those of all carriers, he said.

"We will respect and consider their views,” Furth told NENA Second Vice President Christy Williams, who described the Department of Justice’s comments to the FCC about 911 centers having to accept texts. FCC jurisdiction is limited and can’t include 911 centers, Furth said. Justice identified the Americans with Disabilities Act as one reason why 911 centers would need to accept texts. Williams discussed several of Texas’s 44 911 centers still uncomfortable with the prospect of accepting text messages.

Accurately tracking down location of wireless 911 callers is another ongoing quest, NENA CEO Brian Fontes said, spotlighting a panel of speakers on this endeavor. Many of these companies have tested indoor location tracking as part of an FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council working group. Polaris Wireless doesn’t particularly triangulate to find location, said Norman Shaw, executive director of government affairs for that company. He emphasized that the consensus of the working group is that such testing needs to continue and receive real support. NextNav CEO Gary Parsons spotlighted his company’s technology that does use a method akin to a triangulation to pinpoint a caller’s location. He credited the “extraordinary” effort of the carriers on these initiatives. “Indoors was the key operable question,” Parsons said of the attempts. Standard GPS satellite won’t penetrate inside buildings, where many people use their cellphones, he said. “We also report a vertical height,” he said of his service, noting it’s generally within a two-meter range. Actionable location-tracking comes down to about 50 meters, Parsons said. The level of cooperation was “pleasantly surprising” and the technology “is allowing better and better accuracy,” said Kirk Burroughs, a Qualcomm senior director-technology.

Dorothy Spears-Dean, public safety communications coordinator of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, described the core mission of 911 and the process of the working group. “I came away with a great deal of respect for my vendor colleagues.” She hopes to better educate the 911 centers of Virginia and the state’s residents, she said. The question of how 911 centers will implement vertical accuracy is the next “multi-year” question these stakeholders will have to tackle, Parsons noted.