911 Deployment Happening at Too Slow a Pace, FCC PSAP Architecture Task Force Says
A working group of the FCC Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture (TFOPA) will say in a pending report that deployment of next-generation 911 technology isn't occurring as quickly as it should, said TFOPA officials as the group met for the third time at the FCC Monday. The group got a briefing on the first report to be nearly complete, by the working group for options on a sustainable 911 fee.
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Task force Chairman Philip Jones, a utility commissioner from Washington state, said real-life situations point to the importance of PSAP funding issues. “The 911 outages that have been occurring in states around the country with certain carriers and service providers only illustrate the seams or the problems or some of the challenges that we have in the system,” he said. Raiding 911 funds in various states is also a big issue, Jones said. “You know what this all leads to,” he said. “It all leads to a deceleration in next-generation 911 deployment and this is not in the interest of any of us.” Getting a handle on PSAP funding isn't easy with 50 states and 6,000 PSAPs nationwide, he conceded.
Among the task force’s recommendations is that 911 fees should be “competitively neutral" and “assessed on all technologies” connected to a PSAP, Jones said. “We talk about PSAPs being … boots on the ground,” he said. The report recognizes that state law, not federal law, has to be the primary focus, Jones said. “We talk about effective ways to engage other players that are in state agencies, such as the governor, the state chief information officer, the state budget office, revenue department, public utility commissions, key legislators, committee staff,” he said. “All of these people are involved in the fee and collection system.”
The report also says the data on 911 deployment the FCC must submit to Congress every year isn't accurate, Jones said. As a result, the working group points to the need for an independent auditor to oversee this submission, he said.
The working group won't make any recommendations on PSAP consolidation, Jones said. FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly stopped by the initial meeting of the group in January and asked TFOPA to focus on that issue (see 1501260063). “We concluded that just talking about PSAP ‘consolidation’ was not constructive,” Jones said. “It's not useful. … We believe in a cooperative federalist approach that involves state and local governments that have primary jurisdiction over 911.”
TFOPA member Brian Fontes, CEO of the National Emergency Number Association, urged a “line in the sand” for a date by which the U.S. will have NG911 everywhere. “It’s going to require funding” and a joint state-federal push, he said. Fontes said 75 to 80 percent of emergency calls come from wireless phones. “Those consumers move from 911 center to 911 center to 911 center,” he said. “It would be in the best interest of the American public to ensure that all of our 911 centers are next generation 911.”
David Simpson, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau, said the entire TFOPA has a big job ahead. “You may not all agree on every point but consensus calls for compromise to arrive at measured results,” Simpson said. It’s possible the group will have to offer different recommendations on some issues, he said.
911 a 'Patchwork Quilt'
“The 911 system today is a patchwork quilt of old and new, and consumer technology has outpaced 911 technology in most regards,” Simpson said. “We are at an inflection point where the changes in technology [that] happen around us really should galvanize us to action on making sure that we don't wind up with a relic of a 911 system which is at risk from the changes around it.” Simpson said a “line in the sand” for deployment is an important concept.
“We know that you have charged us with doing something that has never been done before, and to do that in an incredibly brief period of time,” said Steve Souder, TFOPA chairman, a 911 official from Fairfax County, Virginia. “We understand that.” The U.S. has had 911 for 47 years and there are still probably small pockets where 911 is not available, he said. “I really applaud the concept of a line in the sand,” he said.
Jay English of APCO, chairman of the working group on cybersecurity, indicated that a major focus of the group is looking at the balancing act of making PSAPs secure, while still allowing communications with the outside world. “I am an operations guy,” English said. “Reality is we will not build an indestructible or impenetrable network. What we have to do is do the best we can. That’s what this working group is tasked with.”
TFOPA was scheduled to wrap up its work with final reports at a Sept. 29 meeting. Souder said it is now clear that the group's work won’t be complete until the end of the year. Simpson said he wants reports from all three working groups to be approved at the same meeting and for the reports to be “harmonized.” The FCC wants “a coherent recommendation from the task force, not from a working group,” he said. The third working group is examining an optimal approach to NG911 architecture implementation.