South Dakota’s state government gave TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) a $16.4 million contract to provide the state’s Next-Generation 911 (NG911) services over the next five years, TCS said Thursday. TCS will provide end-to-end support for the state’s 29 public safety answering points through the contract under the South Dakota 911 Coordination Board’s supervision. TCS said it will support text-to-911 capability statewide via carriers that interconnect with the company’s Text Control Center. “Our goal is consistent with the goal of the South Dakota 911 Coordination Board: to protect South Dakota residents by equipping PSAPs with the right technology and tools to quickly and efficiently respond to 9-1-1 calls,” Lynne Seitz, TCS senior vice president-Safety & Security Group, said in a news release.

The industry road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for wireless calls to 911 has gathered wide support and the FCC should move quickly to incorporate key provisions into its rules, CTIA said in a filing at the commission. The four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association proposed the plan last month. “Public safety representatives and agencies from across the country eager for dispatchable location,” technology companies, members of the accessibility community and the “national carriers and wireless associations including those that represent small carriers” all support the plan, CTIA said in reply comments filed in docket 07-114, posted by the FCC Wednesday. “The Roadmap is a concrete, carefully-negotiated and -balanced solution to help deliver new and better E911 location accuracy,” CTIA said. “To be clear, however, the Roadmap is intended to function as an alternative -- not a supplement -- to the proposed standards and timetables in the Commission’s NPRM.” TruePosition, which offers an alternative solution for indoor location accuracy, however, said it's hardly a “consensus” plan. It's “opposed by the vast majority of public safety officials who have participated in this proceeding” and “there is scant evidence that the Plan would actually work,” TruePosition said. The carriers just want to “postpone fixing” a problem they caused to begin with, the company said: “The premise of the Roadmap is that if the FCC will simply leave the carriers alone they will someday fix the problem of poor indoor location capabilities for emergency 911 calls.” Officials with Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing reported on a meeting at the FCC. The FCC should look at the road map and other solutions, advocates for the group said. “We want the same capacity we had when we had the landline phones,” the officials said. “During those days, all we had to do was to dial 9-1-1, and help would come, with much success. When we call for an emergency, the first objective is for the dispatcher to get our call, and immediately know where the call came from. Then the dispatcher can send police, fire, or paramedics to the scene of the emergency.” “The Roadmap outlines a clear path to delivering first responders the necessary ‘dispatchable location’ information in an accelerated timeframe,” PCIA said in its reply comments. The plan also “leverages technologies that have been proven successful in commercial location services,” like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, “rather than proprietary technologies without a commercial track record,” the group said. The road map was “the result of tough negotiations between APCO and NENA, on the one hand, and the Carrier Signatories, on the other,” AT&T told the FCC. APCO acknowledged the complaints of some 20 public safety commenters left out of negotiations on the road map. “Since finalizing the Roadmap, APCO has reached out extensively, and will continue to do so, to describe the Roadmap to all interested stakeholders and respond to any questions,” the group said. “Further, APCO welcomes the active assistance of these groups to implement the Roadmap’s solutions to this complex problem.”

The Computer & Communications Industry Association endorsed the industry road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for wireless calls to 911, released last month by the four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association, in reply comments filed at the FCC. But as in the earlier comment round (see 1411180051), many first responders expressed concern about the plan. Replies are due Wednesday at the FCC in docket 07-114. The FCC proposed rules in a February NPRM (see 1402210038).

The FCC is unlikely to adopt the proposed industry road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for calls to 911, released last month by the four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association, without some significant tweaks, industry officials said Tuesday. The plan has been controversial, with numerous public safety groups objecting (see 1412150061). The FCC approved an NPRM proposing a different set of rules in February (see 1402210038).

A plan released last month by the four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association, on a road map for ensuring indoor location accuracy for calls to 911, got mixed reviews. Public safety and state groups commented to the FCC that it should stay the course on its earlier proposal for indoor location accuracy.

Emergency alert system participants weighed in on potential solutions to the security and improved function of the EAS process following unauthorized use of an EAS alert during The Bobby Bones Show on AT&T U-verse this year (see 1411100038). AT&T supported use of a year field in the time stamp, and NAB backed an industrywide effort to achieve better authentication of EAS alerts. The comments came last week in docket 14-200. Replies are due Dec. 19, and comments on a public notice concerning EAS security best practices are due Dec. 30.

A new survey showed that most Americans want technology that will allow them to be located with more accuracy when they make a 911 call from inside their homes, the Find Me 911 Coalition said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1qpe6bW). The group released an online survey of more than 1,000 respondents that said two-thirds of wireless subscribers thought emergency responders could locate them at least to their block, if they call 911 from inside their homes. “Only 6 percent of cell phone owners correctly responded that the information would likely only be accurate to the neighborhood level or worse,” the coalition said. Sixty-three percent said they would consider switching providers if it meant they could be more accurately located when they make an indoor call to 911, the survey found. “When people dial 9-1-1 on their cell phones, they think the operator can find their location to send help,” said Jamie Barnett, director of the coalition and former FCC Public Safety Bureau chief. “Unfortunately, the carriers have chosen cheaper, less effective location technologies, and people are dying because emergency responders can’t find them.” The coalition is supported by TruePosition, a company that offers alternative technology for locating wireless 911 callers (http://bit.ly/1pHjVRV). Carriers fired back at the coalition. “The latest from Jamie Barnett and his client, location vendor TruePosition, only reveals their objective to derail efforts by CTIA and its member companies to find a viable solution,” said Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs. “It doesn’t help public safety or consumers to continue to press for mandates that existing technology can’t deliver.” Carriers understand the importance of delivering “precise, accurate information” to PSAPs, but TruePosition’s technology is “just one solution among many, and carriers should be allowed to choose the service that best fits their technology needs,” said Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association. “We are not aware of any viable solution for precise wireless indoor location information available today,” he added. AT&T made a filing at the FCC Tuesday, questioning claims the coalition has made of poor wireless carrier performance on 911 calls in Washington, D.C. Verizon and T-Mobile have made similar filings at the agency (CD Aug 20 p9). “Unfortunately, rather than contributing to the serious conversation about wireless E911 and indoor location accuracy, apparently the FindMe911 Coalition has decided to continue (in bad faith) to draw erroneous conclusions from data collected by the FCC from various [public safety answering points] throughout the country,” AT&T said in a filing in docket 07-114.

Concerns raised by rival Neustar about naming Telcordia the next Local Number Portability Administrator (LPNA) have already been addressed, Telcordia said in its final reply comments. To the extent that issues like Telcordia’s ability to stay neutral, protect the security of the network from intrusion and work effectively with law enforcement agencies remain unaddressed, they can be dealt with after the FCC formally awards it the contract, said Telcordia’s filing (http://bit.ly/1vGSFny), posted on Monday.

The FCC should ensure that tools and applications for the timely and economical management of 911 data currently in use remain available to 911 providers at no cost, and that any transition to a new LNPA (see separate report above) must not be allowed to adversely affect 911 data management, the National Emergency Number Association, also known as NENA: The 9-1-1 Association, said in reply comments (http://bit.ly/1AEYa96) Friday, posted to docket 09-109. To the extent LNPA candidates have not been asked about their ability to maintain number portability services 911 providers rely on, the FCC should consider amending the request for proposals to require confirmation that these critical services will continue to be available, the association said.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel unveiled four core principles for wireless calls to 911 in remarks at the APCO conference in New Orleans. Rosenworcel said the principles have been endorsed by APCO at her behest and have the support of CTIA as well. The first is that all calls must be dispatchable, she said, according to her written text (http://bit.ly/1kIBykn). “The gold standard for location accuracy is dispatchable location -- the actual floor plus office suite, apartment, hotel room, or classroom.” Rules also must be verifiable, with verifiable targets for measuring accuracy, and flexible, she said. “A solution must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate technological advancements like next generation 911.” Rules also must be put forward in a “reasonable” timeline, Rosenworcel said. “While we must continue to strive towards achieving dispatchable location, we must be honest that this goal could take some time.” The FCC needs “interim benchmarks along the way.” Rosenworcel also said she has visited public safety answering points across the U.S. The visits “have taught me that in Washington, what is trite is true -- leaving town is a good thing,” she said. CTIA President Meredith Baker said in a blog post the group is on board with Rosenworcel’s calls for a voluntary solution to bolster wireless calls to 911. “We need to work harder and faster,” Baker said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1orK7L6). “We need a smarter approach to improve 9-1-1 location accuracy. We need to work with all stakeholders to enhance wireless 9-1-1 accuracy. I pledge that we will at CTIA.”