Initial Text-to-911 Mandate From FCC Is Only a Starting Point, Agency Official Says

Furth said more than 125 PSAPs are already accepting emergency texts: “Text to 911 is not an abstraction. It’s here. It’s real and it has already saved lives.” The current version has to be seen as an “interim step,” he said. “We can’t stop at version 1.0.”

The FCC approved an order in August requiring all carriers and interconnected over-the-top text providers to be able to transmit text-to-911 messages by the end of the year (see 1408110069). The FCC also sought comment on such issues as rules for determining the location of those sending texts and making the system work for subscribers roaming on another network.

It has been clear for more than a decade that 911 networks had to evolve to move beyond just voice calls, said Roger Hixon, NENA director-technical issues. Implementation is “ramping up” but not as quickly as necessary, Hixon said.

Most states could put in place the capacity for all their PSAPs to accept SMS texts for less than $10,000, Hixon said. “It’s not an expensive proposition,” he said. “Training is not hard” and the impact on most PSAPs has been minimal, he said. “There’s really no good reason not to do this pretty much right away.” More pressure needs to be imposed on some public safety authorities to move, he said. Some in the public safety world see text to 911 as a new thing, he said. “It’s not a new thing. It’s something that’s being put in place to solve a problem that’s a very old thing.”

Claude Stout, executive director of TDI, said more than 6,600 PSAPs still can’t accept emergency texts. “How many PSAPs are truly doing their part?” he asked. “How many will do their part next year, two years from now, three years from now?”

Text to 911 has made “remarkable” progress in just the past three years, said Matt Gerst, counsel-external and state affairs for CTIA. “We’ve got a long ways to go in terms of PSAP adoption.” PSAPs still have “a lot of basic questions” about texting to 911, Gerst said. PSAPs need answers on “why is text to 911 the way it is today, why is it an interim solution.” Roaming and location accuracy of texts, two issues under examination by the FCC, will require significant amounts of work before industry can solve either problem, Gerst said.

Carriers are “working hard” to make text to 911 work better, said Brad Blanken, Competitive Carriers Association vice president-industry development. Making roaming work is a particular challenge for smaller carriers for which roaming “is disproportionately a part of their everyday life,” he said. “It’s not roaming because their subscriber goes to Paris on vacation; it’s roaming because they drive to work every morning.”

Industry needs to move beyond SMS “as quickly as possible,” said Jeff Cohen, APCO chief counsel. Allowing real-time texting, texting over Wi-Fi and texting when the sender adds multiple recipients or multimedia should be allowed, he said. “Moving beyond SMS will also help drive adoption by PSAPs and minimize consumer confusion.” The focus should also be on next-generation 911, he said. PSAPs also need “protocols” for “triaging” between emergency texts and voice calls and texting-related language issues such as the use of abbreviations, he said.

Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson said that between his friends in the military who came back from Iraq and Afghanistan with disabilities and his parents facing the disabilities of aging parents, he has gained a new understanding of the importance of communications for the disabled. “It’s not a matter of the community of people with disabilities and the rest of us, it’s all of us,” said Simpson, a retired rear admiral in the Navy.

Too often in the past, communications systems have given short shrift to the needs of the disabled, Simpson said. Industry says, “we can’t fund everything -- let’s just get the system out,” he said. “That is such wrongheaded thinking when it comes to communications.” Early on in the development of new communications systems, accessibility must be addressed, he said. “New technology won’t automatically cover the needs of this community,” he said. “We can’t just think because there’s new technology we’re automatically going to better serve the needs of people with disabilities.”

The deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities “are being left behind without access to 911 services,” said Richard Ray, Americans with Disabilities Act technology access coordinator for Los Angeles. Ray said in 2011 he was driving and felt the early warning signs of a heart attack. But Ray said because he's deaf, he wasn’t able to call 911. A friend drove him to the hospital. “I’m lucky to still be here today,” he said. “It is important for all persons to have access to emergency services through a simple, easy to use, easy to remember three-digit dialing code.”

TeleCommunication Systems Senior Vice President Tim Lorello said the deaf and hard of hearing community forced the start of texting to 911. The company is one of the main vendors PSAPs use to upgrade their networks, he said. “It is more than just this community that is benefiting from this.” Emergency texting will prove important during disasters when voice networks become congested and calls don’t go through, he said: Lives have been saved when someone thinking about suicide sent out a text “cry for help” to 911.