Verizon is completing power audits of all facilities, a review expected to conclude in the Washington region by the end of October and nationwide by March, Senior Vice President Kyle Malady told House lawmakers Wednesday. The telco will have better monitoring equipment in place by 2013, he said. Verizon understands the need to communicate better with public safety answering points and the public during disasters, he said. The Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications held the hearing on the challenges and future of resilient communications, which emphasized the problems of Verizon as well as the new technologies emergency responders are facing. Its prime focus was Verizon’s June 29 failure to maintain power in Northern Virginia during the derecho wind storms and subsequent 911 outages.

Hurricane Isaac-related calls overloaded a Louisiana public safety answering point (PSAP) Aug. 30, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnoiic), identifying the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office PSAP. “The center had been overloaded with requests for service and all the telecommunicators, who were also victims of the storm, had been working non-stop,” NENA said. An eight-member Louisiana Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce attempted to aid the PSAP, which had staff “who were pushing 40 hours on-duty without relief,” according to NENA. The PSAP had requested the task force’s aid.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Nineteen months after a national wireless network for first responders was proposed in the 2011 State of the Union address, the FirstNet’s board of directors was named Monday at the opening session of the Association of Public Communications Officials annual conference. After commending President Barack Obama for calling for the creation of the national wireless network for first responders, Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank revealed the dozen selections. Most were pleased with the selections, though the National Governors Association said it was “disappointed” by the lack of representation by current state officials.

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) is “actively monitoring" the investigations of Verizon’s 911 outages during the June 29 derecho storm in northern Virginia, the association said Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnk4xc). NENA “will issue a full, formal statement when more information is available,” it said. Investigations are under way by the FCC, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the Virginia State Corporation Commission, the Maryland Public Service Commission and the Virginia governor’s office. NENA spotlighted the recent Verizon report (CD Aug 15 p1) and press coverage on its site. In a Friday editorial, The Roanoke Times of Virginia noted the “1,603 calls flooding E-911 in the first 12 hours,” underscoring 911’s importance during the derecho (http://xrl.us/bnk4x5).

It’s feasible for Multi-Line Telephone System manufacturers to provide precise 911 location information, but groups that commented Friday differed on the proper role of the FCC in encouraging that capability. Some thought the FCC should pass rules explicitly extending location service requirements to MLTS manufacturers and operators, while others said the FCC was better positioned as an agency to guide the development of voluntary industry standards.

The National Emergency Number Association views the transition to next-generation 911 as a critical next step for public safety, said new NENA President Barbara Jaeger. “At NENA, we must do whatever we can to educate policy makers and legislators on the importance of NG911 and the national commitment that will be required to build and maintain these networks,” said Jaeger, also Arizona’s 911 administrator. “Our job is to make sure both Congress and the President … are committed to funding and deploying NG911,” she said. “We will work with our nation’s leaders to achieve what is in the best interest of all Americans -- especially the nearly 1 million people that reach out to 911 every day."

The FCC Public Safety Bureau is working hard to wrap up a decision on the various longstanding applications from Oklahoma, New Orleans and other jurisdictions for waivers so they can build out early networks in the 700 MHz band, Chief Jamie Burnett said Wednesday. But Barnett, who spoke at a National Emergency Number Association conference, declined to provide a timetable for when the FCC will make a decision.

The National Emergency Number Association is still working with its members on the challenges public safety answering points face should the FCC mandate text messaging-to-911, CEO Brian Fontes said in a meeting with FCC officials. “We explained that some PSAP equipment such as log recorders may require upgrades in order to handle SMS text, depending on a particular PSAP’s posture with respect to NG911 readiness,” NENA said in a filing (http://xrl.us/bmy435).

Spectrum legislation approved by Congress last week as part of the payroll tax cut extension bill offers $115 million to help defray the costs of a next generation 911 (NG911) network. That’s the good news for public safety. The bad news is that amount is less than one twentieth of the expected cost. But public safety officials said other provisions should be helpful in making NG911 a reality.

The FCC should “discount” recommendations by the Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions Incubator that the only feasible solution in the short term for sending texts to 911 should be based on Internet Protocol text relay technology, the National Emergency Number Association said in a comment filing. ATIS started its investigation in April 2011 using June 2012 “as the target deployment date,” NENA said (http://xrl.us/bmr3i7). “By arbitrarily limiting its consideration of possible solutions to those which could be deployed nation-wide in just over one year (including the 9 months required to generate its report), the Incubator effectively precluded consideration of many potential solutions that might have been implementable upon longer, but still reasonable timeframes.” IP text relay “has enormous shortcomings, however, that arguably exceed even those of some SMS-based solutions,” NENA said. It said said some companies, including Intrado and Neustar, have demonstrated or proposed SMS-to-911 solutions “that allow for location-based routing and varying degrees of handset- or network-based location reporting -- both critical elements of 911 service that IP text relay has not yet been shown to support.”