Carriers and public safety groups are working together on consensus rules aimed at curbing 911 outages, the National Emergency Number Association said in comments at the FCC, posted by the agency Tuesday. Various industry groups and companies warned against imposing new rules. Comments were filed in docket 14-193. The NPRM came in the wake of the April 2014 multistate 911 outage, the subject of an October report by the FCC.

Commissioner Ajit Pai touted FCC progress on indoor location accuracy, at a National Emergency Number Association awards gala Tuesday. The FCC approved rules 5-0 at its January meeting (see 1501290066). Pai said the input from carriers, APCO and NENA was critical. “We’re now on a path to providing emergency responders with a ‘dispatchable location’ -- that’s the room, office, or suite number where the 911 caller is located,” Pai said, according to prepared remarks. “Public safety organizations have described this as the ‘gold standard’ for indoor location accuracy because it tells first responders exactly which door they need to knock on, or in some cases, kick in during an emergency. This is a great next step in improving our nation’s 911 system.” Pai said Americans should realize how lucky they are to be able to call a single number in an emergency. He recounted a recent trip to India. “In India, there isn’t a [unique] single number that people can call for help,” he said. “There’s one number to reach the police, another for the fire department, and yet another if you need an ambulance. There are even different numbers for senior citizens, women, and children to use.” Pai also said hotel chains have made substantial progress in another key area -- letting customers call 911 from their rooms without having to dial 9 first to get an outside line. By the end of the year, all Country Inn & Suites, Crowne Plaza, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Fairfield Inn, Four Points, Gaylord, Hampton Inn, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, InterContinental, La Quinta, Marriott, Motel 6, Park Plaza, Radisson, Residence Inn, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Sheraton, Staybridge, W and Westin properties will have that capacity, he said.

Localized public safety answering points (PSAPs) have “an obvious leading part” in making the FCC’s 911 wireless location accuracy order and the industry-public safety road map work, FCC Public Safety Bureau Deputy Chief David Furth said on Tuesday. PSAPs “are in the best position” to monitor the on-the-ground accuracy of 911 location technologies the carriers are testing as part of the order and road map, he said during a National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference. The 911 indoor location accuracy order the FCC adopted Jan. 29 was seen to have been influenced by the voluntary commitments included in the road map (see 1501290066).

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) convened emergency communications officials in Washington, D.C., Monday to prepare for days of meetings with members of Congress on 911-related legislation. NENA highlighted several legislative priorities that officials should discuss during their meetings, including passage of “comprehensive” federal legislation that would require multiline telecom systems (MLTS) installed in dorms, hotels and offices to provide direct-dial access to 911. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai also has pushed for direct-dial access to 911 on MLTS systems and has received voluntary commitments from most major hotel chains to implement direct-dial on their systems by the end of the year (see 1502170057). NENA also supports the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act to ensure local public safety answering points can access caller geolocation data when 911 is dialed. NENA is seeking parity of access so PSAPs can compete for federal grant funds on an equal basis with public safety agencies and wants members of Congress to discuss public safety telecom in speeches April 12-18.

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The FCC voted 5-0 to approve rules requiring carriers to provide data to 911 call centers on wireless calls made indoors. The order changed significantly since first circulated by Chairman Tom Wheeler three weeks ago, putting more emphasis on the concept of dispatchable location as proposed in the industry-public safety road map, industry and FCC officials said. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn expressed concerns that the order was weaker than rules proposed by the FCC in a February NPRM and said she could only concur.

CTIA asked the FCC to reject arguments that the agency should effectively exclude all emergency calls that are satellite-based from being counted as indoor calls as the agency develops metrics for measuring the ability of carriers to identify the location of indoor wireless calls to 911. Industry officials view that as one of the key policy decisions that the FCC will make when it approves rules, to be voted on at Thursday’s commission meeting (see 1501130062).

As Commissioner Ajit Pai said the largest U.S. hotel chains have made progress on ensuring guests can call 911 without first dialing 9, he also criticized the lack of FCC action in dealing with the problem at its own offices. Speaking at a news conference Friday at the Marshall, Texas, police headquarters, Pai said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly discovered “something disturbing” last year. When callers using the agency’s phone system try to call 911 directly, they receive a message saying, “'Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please consult your directory and call again or ask your operator for assistance. This is a recording.'” The message should have an additional line, Pai said: “This is completely unacceptable.”

APCO and the National Emergency Number Association filed separate letters at the FCC urging the agency to approve the road map the groups worked out with CTIA and the major wireless carriers on indoor wireless location accuracy rules. The FCC is poised to vote on rules Jan. 29. The road map's release followed seven months of work, APCO said. “The Roadmap is designed to produce a dispatchable location -- defined as the ‘civic address of the calling party plus additional information such as floor, suite, apartment or similar information that may be needed to adequately identify the location of the calling party,’” APCO said. “Dispatchable location is public safety’s gold standard for indoor location accuracy.” NENA's comments agreed: “The Roadmap is the product of many months of intensive negotiations and technical analysis, and represents the most robust agreement our organization could achieve in partnership with the carriers.” TruePosition, which wants the FCC to reject the road map, criticized the revised plan filed at the FCC this week by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (see Ref:1501210004]). “APCO and NENA did not sign this latest ‘Modified Roadmap,’ but even if these organizations do support it, this alternative to the FCC’s proposed rules has not been thoroughly vetted and endorsed by the most critical participants in this rulemaking proceeding: the First Responders and Public Safety officers who desperately need accurate indoor location information for emergency 911 calls placed by wireless phones,” TruePosition said. The FCC posted the letters Thursday in docket 07-114.

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) said it formed an Emergency Location Task Force to improve location accuracy for wireless 911 calls. The task force is forming to support the goals included in the indoor location accuracy road map released in November by APCO, NENA and the top four U.S. wireless carriers (see 1412150061). The task force will focus initially on standards to support the road map commitments but also will collaborate with other organizations to “seek broader implementation and adoption of solutions, including with the Third Generation Partnership Project,” ATIS said in a Friday news release.