Members of Emergency Services Interconnection Forum (ESIF) on Fri...
Members of Emergency Services Interconnection Forum (ESIF) on Fri. touted technical solution designed to stem increasing problem of crank or harassing 911 calls fielded by public safety answering points (PSAPs) from 911-only phones. FCC in April issued order requiring…
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wireless carriers to use new code to alert PSAPs when 911 calls was made from handset that lacked callback capability, known as nonservice initialized phone. Typically, carriers assign dialable number to handset after customer signs service contract. Noninitialized phones, including 911-only units donated to domestic abuse programs, lack that number for PSAPs to call back for more information when 911 is dialed. Order requires carriers to program noninitialized phones with 123-456-7890 as “phone number” that will be used to notify PSAP that emergency call is coming from phone without callback capability. ESIF has been working on what it believes to be better solution than 123-456-7890 system set out by FCC, said Robert Gojanovich, manager of 911 service for Verizon and leader of ESIF study group on issue. Main strength of ESIF solution is ability to uniquely identify handset making call and help to pinpoint repeat callers, for isolating cases of harassment and highlighting legitimate calls that come in more than once, Gojanovich said in Fri. conference call sponsored by Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions. In areas where Enhanced 911 Phase 1 or 2 isn’t yet in place, 911 calls can be made anonymously, particularly on phones that don’t have callback capability, Gojanovich said. National Emergency Number Assn. and Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials have been tracking problem, he said. “We are hearing more and more stories where hundreds of calls are placed from a person or handset into a 911 center,” he said. For TDMA and CDMA networks, solution on which public safety and industry have been working would transmit “911” in place of area code and last 7 digits of electronic serial number (ESN) of handset to PSAP, Gojanovich said. Equivalent to ESN also could be used for GSM networks, he said. Among benefits of that system is that information on handsets making bogus 911 calls could be used to prosecute offenders, he said. Wireless carrier network will capture that number, for example, and it can be printed out at PSAP as it’s received, he said. Once Phase 2 of E911 is more widely in place to provide location information on wireless callers, that information could be used to locate caller.