The “vast majority” of 2.5 million VoIP subscribers will have E-911 service by Nov. 28, as required by the FCC, VON Coalition said in a progress report. Of 12 major interconnected VoIP service providers surveyed, 42% estimate that 100% of their customers will have E-911 for their primary fixed location by Nov. 28, the study said. But it said there would be 750,000 mostly nomadic residential VoIP customers who will have access to only basic 911, not E-911, by the deadline. The survey said 42% of respondents expect to have to disconnect customers to comply with the FCC order. Some challenges cited by VoIP providers in adopting E-911 include: (1) No direct access to trunks, selective routers and E-911 databases. (2) A tough deadline. (3) Absence of an interim numbering administrator. (4) Lack of leverage for small companies negotiating with 3rd party 911 providers. (5) 911 gateway providers charging high prices. (6) PSAP outreach. “Additional regulatory flexibility and time would facilitate the continued deployment of E-911,” the VON Coalition said. It urged the FCC not to require interconnected VoIP providers to disconnect customers who have basic or E-911 service. “VoIP should be treated like every other phone service where policymakers chose specifically not to shut off of a basic 911 service while E-911 is being deployed,” VON Coalition said: “Shutting off service could undermine the important progress created by the FCC’s E-911 order.” The survey said the FCC order accelerated E-911 efforts prompting greater industry cooperation and coordination, greater public awareness of the issue and new efforts to designate a pseudo-ANI Administrator. But the VON Coalition warned that “it’s not yet technically and operationally possible” to provide E-911 for all VoIP users by the Nov. 28 deadline because no nationwide solutions exist for fixed or nomadic service. Survey respondents said VoIP offers other emergency benefits, beyond E-911, with 92% citing the ability to move a VoIP phone to another location in an emergency, 83% pointing out to the ability to use VoIP over any network and 75% citing the ability to speed the transition to an IP-based emergency network capable of emergency advances not available on today’s phone network. The progress report was released in wake of a 2-year anniversary of VON’s agreement with NENA to adopt 911 technologies for VoIP.

NENA has formed a task force to set up a national cadre of telecommunicator emergency response teams to safeguard 911 service during crises. The group, made up of NENA and APCO state representatives, met Oct. 25 in Greensboro, N.C., and will meet Jan. 23 in Anaheim during the Cal. NENA chapter annual meeting. The aim is to help states prepare “deploy trained, recognized teams of telecommunicators whenever a local 911 infrastructure is compromised by a natural disaster or terrorist event,” NENA said.

Public safety groups strongly opposed a blanket waiver of the FCC’s Dec. 31 deadline for wireless carriers using handset-based approach to reach 95% penetration of location-capable handsets among their subscribers. But they said they would back the Commission addressing the matter case by case. The Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and NENA’s comments came in response to waver petitions by CTIA, Rural Cellular Assn. (RCA), Sprint Nextel and Alltel.

NENA defended the most recent recommendations by the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) on E-911 wireless location accuracy measurement in a letter to FCC Chmn. Martin. The letter came after the Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) last month criticized the results of the NRIC working group (CD Sept 16 p5), of which both are members. APCO told the FCC its most-recent round of negotiations with the rest of the NRIC working group failed after “the wireless carriers have been unwilling to accept an accuracy requirement other than state-level,” despite APCO’s “significant concessions.” But NENA Pres. David Jones said in the letter the working group’s new clarified recommendations “would be of great benefit to public safety.” The most recent recommendations recognize that location measurement can’t be done at a PSAP level due to technological limitations, and provide for a “clearly defined process” to monitor carriers’ progress toward PSAP-based location measurement. The recommendations also include a requirement to adhere to specific trouble resolution and mitigation procedures. Jones stressed the importance of preserving the value of the existing recommendations: “Coupled with the important elements already contained in the NRIC 1A recommendations, further clarification… can only be thought of as a great benefit to the public safety community.” Jones also said E-911 was “truly a public-private partnership in which all parties must work together in the spirit of collaboration and cooperation. All parties will not agree 100% of the time, but we cannot tolerate an adversarial mentality. We must cooperate in the overall deployment of wireless E- 911, where only 50% of the PSAPs in this country are currently able to receive Phase II wireless 911 calls.”

More than 50% of U.S. PSAPs still don’t receive wireless E-911 Phase II location information, the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) said. NENA released a report as part of a Transportation Dept. wireless deployment project. Lack of PSAP funding and deployment coordination remain the main roadblocks to Phase II implementation, NENA and public safety officials told us.

Negotiations failed between the wireless industry and public safety on E-911 wireless location accuracy rules, a public safety group told the FCC. The issue has sparked a huge fight, with public safety advocating application of the requirements at a local community level, and industry pushing for statewide application. After months of negotiations, “an impasse has been reached and the parties appear to agree that further negotiations are unlikely to reach an agreement,” said Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO).

The National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) said it launched a 20 day public review period for its VoIP E-911 Interim Solution standard (I2). The standard is aimed at enabling VoIP service providers to “deliver full E-911 service through the current E-911 infrastructure,” NENA said -- www.nena.org.

The FCC said it set up a task force with NARUC to “facilitate timely and effective enforcement of the Commission’s VoIP E911 rules.” The task force, with staff from the FCC and state PUCs, will work closely with public safety representatives including APCO and NENA, it said. “The federal and state Task Force members will look at developing educational materials to ensure that consumers understand their rights and the requirements of the FCC’s VoIP E911 order and rules and how best to expedite compliance and facilitate enforcement, where necessary,” the FCC said: “The Task Force will also compile data and share best practices.” Task force members will be named soon.

Providers are scrambling to meet a Nov. 28 deadline by which interconnected VoIP providers must offer E-911 services, panelists said Thurs. at the VoIP E-911 Solution Summit in D.C. “Because only 33.6% of American counties have phase 2 wireless,” providers will need a lot of time and money to meet the deadline, said Rick Jones of the National Emergency Numbers Assn. (NENA). The FCC order said interconnected VoIP services must transmit all 911 calls with caller location and call-back number to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), “even if through a third party or CLEC.” Many VoIP providers said they consider the FCC’s decision “aggressive.”

A consensus reached by the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) on testing and reporting Phase II E911 location accuracy (CD March 30 p2) could fall apart “if one aspect of the recommendation is changed without revisiting the entire agreement,” NENA warned the FCC. NRIC has recommended that accuracy testing be done statewide, but APCO dissented, arguing such testing should be done locally. “It is not so much that this is a weak consensus, but rather, it is carefully crafted to solve many problems through one approach, a system over a solution,” NENA said: “NENA believes that all perspectives were considered during the negotiations, and that the opponents to the recommendation were simply never willing to budge from their demand that accuracy and testing be conducted at the PSAP level.”