The NG911 NOW Coalition Tuesday called for national action to make Next-Generation 911 a reality nationwide by 2020. Coalition members include the National Association of State 911 Administrators, the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies and the National Emergency Number Association. “NG911 will enhance the 911 system to create a faster, more flexible, resilient, and scalable system that allows 911 to keep up with communication technology used by the public,” the coalition said in a news release. “Citizens in need of emergency assistance will be able to transmit photos, videos and other forms of broadband data and applications to 911 professionals, in addition to making a traditional voice call or sending a text message.” “Over the past year, I have been very vocal about the fact that the transition to Next Generation 911 is stalled and we need an all-out effort to accelerate it,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a statement. “Today’s announcement of a new coalition to hasten the NG911 transition is welcome news. Modernizing the nation’s 911 system will take work from many stakeholders -- including the FCC, state and local 911 authorities and legislatures, industry, and Congress -- but together we can save lives.” NTCA said rural call centers “face significant challenges to upgrading their systems; among them, the current 911 funding model is broken and ineffective at supporting existing services, let alone advanced capabilities.” Monday, Wheeler spoke on the issue at the NENA conference (see 1602220048).

It is "imperative" the implementation of next-generation 911 (NG911) systems happens "now" nationwide, and that there is a universality of the technologies used in the new IP-based systems, FCC officials and emergency communications experts said Monday during a National Emergency Number Association event. Panelists and NENA members also stressed the need for passage of "comprehensive" multiline telephone system (MLTS) legislation, as well as recurring funding sources for local public safety answering points (PSAPs) and robust cybersecurity protections for NG-911 systems.

APCO urged the FCC to take prompt action to sunset a requirement that retired handsets, known as non-service-initialized (NSI) devices, still be able to connect to 911. APCO cited a November filing by CTIA in which the wireless association said no one has a count on how many 2G phones are still in circulation and are being used by some as a way of calling 911 in an emergency. CTIA estimated as many as 136 million 2G handsets are still in circulation, but will no longer be able to contact 2G at some point as carriers shut down their 2G networks. That dynamic is important, APCO said. “Reduced NSI access to 9-1-1 resulting from technology retirements will only worsen as carriers shut down 2G, and then 3G networks,” the filing said. “To address this situation, it should be the wireless industry, not [911 call centers], that leads efforts to educate affected consumers. The carriers should be responsible for managing expectations related to their networks, and their responsibility includes educating all affected parties, not just their remaining subscribers.” APCO officials said they met with Public Safety Bureau staff to discuss the problem. National Emergency Number Association officials reported on a separate meeting with bureau staffers on the issue. “NENA’s representatives stressed the extreme importance of solving the NSI problem on a short timeframe,” NENA said. “We explained that the cost burden to Public Safety Answering Points from the added equipment, telecommunications services, and personnel required to handle the flood of NSI calls -- most of which do not relate to actual emergencies -- has become unsustainable.” The filings were posted in docket 08-51. CTIA did not comment.

The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC should move with care in considering Twilio’s petition for clarification that messaging services should be regulated under Title II of the Communications Act (see 1510130040). Wireless industry commenters opposed the petition outright. Some parties questioned whether changing how text messages are regulated would mean consumers would have to deal with many more spam texts. Reply comments were due Monday in docket 08-7.

NENA plans a "Critical Issues Forum" Wednesday and Thursday in Austin to tackle location accuracy problems that 911 can face in the public safety community and with the public, a news release from NENA said. David Simpson, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau, will speak on developments in location accuracy during the conference, it said.

Staffers on Capitol Hill foresee a tall order in the 911 legislative recommendations that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler laid out last week at APCO’s conference (see 1508190056), which aren't yet manifested in any package or set for the fall agenda to anyone’s knowledge. Several Hill staffers weren't familiar with outreach from the FCC on the legislative package that Wheeler described, which he said would be critical for the implementation of Next-Generation 911 and should factor into the congressional calendar in future months. Former FCC officials agreed the issues deserve serious and expedient Hill attention.

Lifeline reform isn’t on the minds of only the FCC commissioners, it’s also on the minds of members of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners ahead of its summer committee meeting in New York City, Sunday-Tuesday. Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael O'Rielly will attend a Monday meeting to discuss reforming Lifeline. The commissioners will discuss how best to give low-income communities more access to 21st century broadband communications services, the meeting program said. South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson said that discussion should be interesting because the two commissioners have different thoughts on Lifeline: “I think that will be one of our more interesting sessions. ... I'm not sure I can remember a time where we've had two [FCC Commissioners] on the same panel, and in the case of Lifeline, I think [they're] two that have a little bit of a difference in opinion as to how it should evolve, so this may be breaking a little bit of ground.”

APCO told the FCC that, now that comments are in, it should move forward with the agency's proposal to end a requirement that nonservice-initialized (NSI) handsets -- cellphones no longer connected to a carrier network -- still must be able to connect to 911. In reply comments, carriers and public safety advocates lined up in opposition to dropping the requirement, largely as they had in the initial comment round (see 1506080043).

Next-generation 911 was a major theme when more than 2,000 met in Denver last week for the National Emergency Number Association's annual meeting, NENA said in a news release. “NG9-1-1 not only provides the capability to accept 9-1-1 text and multimedia messaging, but also enhances call routing and handling,” the group said. “In addition, NG9-1-1 allows for communications and data transfers across county, state, and international borders, and provides for interconnection and seamless information sharing between 9-1-1 centers, first responders, poison control centers, trauma centers, and other emergency response entities.”

CTIA opposed calls from the public safety community to eliminate a requirement that “nonservice-initialized” (NSI) handsets -- cellphones no longer connected to a carrier network -- still must be able to connect to 911, said comments filed at the FCC. Public safety officials sought the change seven years ago, complaining about prank calls to public safety answering points (PSAPs), often from teenagers, that can't be traced to the caller (see 0803050126). In April the FCC sought comment (see 1504020047) and proposed to sunset the rule after a six-month transition. Comments were due Friday in docket 08-51.