Movements to end 911 fee diversion in New Jersey and Rhode Island continue as FCC commissioners amplify rhetoric on the issue and after another commission report showed several states still using 911 fees charged on phone bills for things not directly related to 911. But governors in violating states haven't pledged changes and the state-level efforts -- spearheaded by industry and county officials in New Jersey and a state representative in Rhode Island -- are not new. Continued misuse of the fees is “incredibly disappointing” and “jeopardizes the future of the 911 system,” warned National Emergency Number Association Director-Government Affairs Trey Forgety. Funding is a key challenge to implementing NG-911, GAO said in a report released Friday.

First responder groups criticized what they said was an Office of Management and Budget decision Tuesday to not reclassify "public safety telecommunicators" in a "protective service” category in its standard occupational classification, as advocates sought so that 911 call takers are in a category that includes police and firefighters (see 1704100015). OMB staff has failed 911 professionals as "call takers & dispatchers aren’t 'protective' occupations," tweeted APCO. "@realDonaldTrump @POTUS Please fix." The group "consulted with a top law firm in DC and decided that pursuing a remedy in court is not a viable option," it said on its website. "This decision is within OMB’s discretion, which means OMB, or even President Trump, has the power to correct it." National Emergency Number Association President Rob McMullen, calling it an "emotionally-charged issue," said NENA made evidence-based comments consistent with "OMB’s data-driven approach to this statistical classification. OMB has made it clear that this is the only way to achieve our long-term goal of full reclassification." OMB didn't comment Wednesday.

Chairman Ajit Pai said when people call 911, they need to be able to get through and the FCC will do what it must to guarantee that occurs. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the FCC must do a complete report on hurricanes Harvey and Irma and communications failures seen in both storms. Both spoke Monday as the FCC marked the 16th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with a workshop on improving situational awareness during 911 outages. It took place as Irma battered parts of the Southeast and as Florida started to deal with the damage inflicted by the massive storm. Public safety answering points and communications towers took a big hit, the FCC reported.

Emergency-911 reliability suffers from using pre-internet infrastructure and from institutional complexity, insufficient staffing and funding, experts said in interviews. Next-generation 911 won’t prevent outages and adds new challenges, they said. Over time, the IP-based network should be more reliable and will help detect and fix problems faster, they said. Funding NG-911 and ending state diversion of 911 fees would speed improvements.

APCO's executive committee and executive director met with the officers and CEO of the National Emergency Number Association July 29 to discuss joint positions on 911 issues. An APCO official said the group had nothing to say beyond a statement. “The collegial and productive meeting resulted in consensus by both associations for the need for all Next Generation 9-1-1 technologies to be both interoperable and interconnected including equipment currently described as NENA 13 ‘compliant,’” said a Friday joint statement. “The two associations also discussed and agreed on the need for federal funding to enable state and local governments to transition to Next Generation technologies as well as the need for consistent and transparent messaging concerning the current state of Next Generation 9-1-1 equipment offerings.” Look for joint communications on these topics in the next 30 to 60 days, the groups said.

New York City’s Next-Generation 911 project will have positive impact for the rest of the country, but more funding is needed, the National Emergency Number Association said Wednesday. The city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications released a request for proposals seeking vendors to build the infrastructure supporting the IP-based 911 system, DoITT said in a Tuesday news release. Proposals are due Aug. 8, with work slated to start in December and NG-911 expected to launch in Q1 2022, DoITT said. While NG-911 is in development, the city plans to launch a text-to-911 service by Q1 2018, it said. “New York’s insistence on testing, validation, and standards will have benefits far beyond our largest city,” NENA said in a statement. “To bring NG9-1-1 to the entire country, however, we need a significant injection of federal capital, and soon. Otherwise, many 9-1-1 centers and the responders and citizens they serve could be stuck with expensive, less-reliable legacy equipment and systems for years to come.” New York City officials applauded the project. “Our number one priority is keeping New Yorkers safe, and developing the strongest, most state-of-the-art 911 system is essential to that mission,” said First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris. “In the 21st century, that means ensuring that New Yorkers who need to communicate with 911 can do more than make a phone call -- we want to give them the ability to send photos, stream video, and more.” NG-911 will make it easier for the city to make further 911 upgrades in the future, added DoITT Commissioner Anne Roest.

The National Emergency Number Association said it's pleased wireless carriers' privacy and security plan for the National Emergency Address Database (NEAD) got general support. The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on the plan; replies were due Thursday in docket 07-114 (see 1702280051). NENA said it felt compelled to respond to earlier comments by the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) and its supporters. They argue access should be provided to 911 entities and their authoritative geographic information system (GIS) data providers for purposes analogous to current address validation, discrepancy reporting and error resolution, NENA wrote. “It is at least implicit in the comments, however, that NSGIC seeks access to data beyond that which was contemplated at the time E9-1-1 and/or NG9-1-1 standards were developed, beyond that which was negotiated between NENA, APCO, and the four largest wireless carriers and included in the Commission's rules, and beyond that which was designed-in to the NEAD architecture. Although NENA agrees entirely with NSGIC that address data utilized for 9-1-1 purposes must be validated in advance of use, we are compelled to reaffirm our commitment to the standards, the agreement and rules, and the significant work that has already gone into architecting the NEAD.” The New York State Office of Information Technology Services said the request to add “pre-validation of a NEAD dispatchable location, including its additional ‘subaddress’ information, as an allowable government use for 9-1-1 purposes’ to the NEAD Privacy and Security Plan” is critical to public safety answering points and GIS data providers. Both “need to confirm civic address locations within the NEAD are valid prior to their use during a 9-1-1 call so that should a call ever come from that device, its associated location is routable for 9-1-1 and usable for dispatch, which ultimately will save lives,” the agency said.

The National Emergency Number Association told the FCC it agrees with T-Mobile, which sought FCC clarification of the December order establishing a common standard for the transition from text technology (TTY) to real-time text (RTT). T-Mobile sought clarification (see 1702240035) of the obligation of carriers to deliver calls to public safety answering points (PSAPs) using an emergency services Internet Protocol network (ESInet). “Carefully reviewing T-Mobile’s Petition, we are convinced that, in one narrow case, transcoding of RTT to TTY should not be the responsibility of an originating service provider or access network provider,” NENA said in comments filed in docket 16-145. “As T-Mobile correctly notes, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for an [access network provider] to insert its own systems between a terminating ESInet and a legacy PSAP,” NENA said. “Doing so would require a novel call-routing mechanism, or would require a carrier to pay for all or part of the costs of installing and maintaining a Legacy PSAP Gateway.”

Congress should consider hitching Next-Generation 911 legislation to the $1 trillion infrastructure package under discussion this session, West Safety Services Vice President Mary Boyd plans to testify Wednesday on behalf of the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCert). Her advocacy echoes what key Senate Democrats have said this year, a growing push that goes beyond the telecom debate about including broadband funding (see 1702280062). Witnesses plan to tell the House Communications Subcommittee of the needs of NG-911 in funding and legislative tweaks, with significant attention on the i3 standard that the National Emergency Number Association worked on.

As the FCC considers the proposals in a further rulemaking on real-time text, it should ensure the rules “remain grounded in feasibility, subject to the statutory limitations on what is achievable and readily achievable,” T-Mobile replied. “T-Mobile encourages the Commission to reject calls for expanding the scope of the backwards compatibility obligation as well as to refrain from adopting new and onerous mandates on carriers.” The company said, for example, RTT can't be compatible with short-message service texting. “SMS and RTT are two entirely different communications protocols -- SMS is a best-effort, store-and-forward service, while RTT is a session-based, two-way communication similar to voice calling,” the carrier said. “Making RTT backwards compatible with SMS is not feasible.” The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions agreed. “RTT and SMS are two different technologies -- end-users make a choice regarding which technology to use and there is no way for service providers to automatically revert messages sent using one technology to another,” ATIS replied. “An RTT message therefore cannot automatically fall back to SMS.” The National Emergency Number Association in general supported an FCC proposal that it set a sunset date of 2021 for traditional text telephony (TTY), which RTT is replacing. “The Commission should carefully track data trends among consumers, access network providers, originating service providers (such as over-the-top RTT services), and [public safety answering points],” NENA wrote. “If it appears, closer to the tentative sunset date, that any one of these important constituencies has not yet adequately transitioned to technologies and business practices that natively support RTT, the Commission should be prepared to postpone the sunset for a limited time.” In December, the FCC approved an order on a common standard for the transition from TTY to RTT and asked a number of questions in an FNPRM (see 1612150048). Replies were due Friday in docket 16-145.