Despite Progress, Texting 911 Not Fully Operational in Most States
Text-to-911 adoption is growing, but more work lies ahead, with many state-and-territory deployments not stretching across the entire jurisdiction, emergency number officials told us last week. “We’re absolutely headed in the right direction,” but funding is necessary as well as "many, many 911 centers" and "we need to try to accelerate that,” said NG-911 Institute Executive Director Patrick Halley in an interview. Ahead of most, Maine and Massachusetts completed statewide text-to-911 rollouts this month.
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No official report exists on precisely how many states fully deployed text-to-911. The National Association of State 911 Administrators knows of 15 states or territories that say they completed or nearly completed implementations, said NASNA Executive Director Evelyn Bailey. They are Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont and the District of Columbia. “Other states are in various stages of deployment," from a few public safety answering points to 75 percent of PSAPs, she said.
States and territory respondents to the FCC’s 911 report last week said 1,381 PSAPs were text-capable at the end of 2017 and projected the number would reach 2,484 by year-end 2018 (see 1812190059). The FCC estimates the U.S. has about 6,300 PSAPs. Voluntarily-submitted data from a Public Safety Bureau registry on PSAP text-to-911 deployment shows most states and territories with at least a few text-capable PSAPs, though five states and four territories had zero as of Dec. 14, said last week’s report. FCC data doesn’t break down full or partial state deployments, and the agency declined comment.
More local and state 911 officials see the importance of text-to-911 than before, said Halley. Skepticism is decreasing about text-to-911 technology, including old fears that texting was too “easy” and might flood PSAPs with false or unnecessary requests for emergency assistance, he said. “When people have an emergency, their natural instinct is to pick up a phone and call because they want to be able to have a conversation in real-time.” Calling generally provides faster assistance and provides automatic location information; texting doesn’t but could in the future, he said. “Texting saves lives,” including for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and in emergency situations where the person is hiding or feels more comfortable texting for help, he said.
People texting 911 in states with only partial deployments could get bounce-back messages if they’re not in the right region, Halley said. “That is not an ideal outcome,” and “avoiding the patchwork quilt of text-to-911 capable PSAPs is an important objective.”
Some states might be waiting to support texting until they build out next-generation 911 networks, even though they could do it on older technology, said Maine Public Utilities Commission Emergency Services Communications Bureau Director Maria Jacques in an interview. The bureau, Maine’s statewide 911 authority, this month announced texting support at all 24 state PSAPs through the state’s NG-911 network (see 1812170041). In 2014, Maine deployed text-to-911 on “very limited technology” to two PSAPs, which could answer texts from the whole state, she said. Maine promoted the older service among the deaf community but not to the wider public because the system couldn’t handle many texts at once, she said.
Maine’s NG-911 system can take on a “far greater volume” of texts and will hold up in a large disaster, so the PUC plans to do much wider public outreach than it did for the older technology, Jacques said. Being an early adopter of NG-911 made Maine’s text-to-911 project challenging, said Jacques. She said funding wasn’t an issue, and Maine’s statewide 911 authority -- compared with many other states that handle 911 at the county or municipal level -- made the work quicker.
Massachusetts soft launched text-to-911 on Dec. 14 to all 232 PSAPs on its NG-911 network, said Massachusetts State 911 Department Executive Director Frank Pozniak in an interview. Days later, the new texting system reportedly saved the life of a man who was considering suicide. The state plans a wider public announcement next month, Pozniak said. Having statewide 911 authority made it easier to cover the state quickly, he said.
Support for picture and video messaging isn’t yet available, but the NG-911 network can support that in the future, Jacques said. “We are doing everything that industry is capable of giving us,” but Maine is waiting for industry to support multimedia capabilities, she said. “Next-generation 911 is an evolutionary process. We’ve built the basic infrastructure, and as new technologies and services become available that we can take advantage of, we will expand to include them.”
“Text-to-911 is a critical emergency service for millions of wireless consumers, especially those who can’t call 9-1-1,” said CTIA Assistant Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Matt Gerst. “We are encouraged by the progress made since 2015 by local PSAPs to implement this life-saving service and look forward to partnering with key stakeholders to encourage further adoption.”