Education Called Biggest Hurdle for 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline
Educating the public, particularly about 10-digit dialing, could be one of the heaviest lifts for LECs in implementing one three-digit national suicide prevention hotline number, regional carriers and experts told us. Meeting North American numbering plan administrator (NANPA) milestones for the unified 988 number could be a challenge, they said, though local carriers didn't foresee big problems. Verizon said Dec. 21 it had implemented such dialing for its wireless customers, though landline customers won't have that until July 2022.
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Under the NANPA implementation schedule, permissive 10-digit dialing for 83 area codes in 36 states and Guam starts April 24, followed by carriers starting to make 10-digit dialing mandatory Oct. 24. Mandatory 10-digit implementation enforcement is to end by July 15, 2022.
This timeline "is necessary to ensure that all stakeholders, including telecom providers and other components of the crisis care continuum, have sufficient time to prepare for 988 to be activated in July 2022," said Vibrant Emotional Health, administrator for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. "This also allows sufficient time to educate the public about 988, both as a resource and an easily accessible dialing code."
Educating senior citizens who live in areas where there has been seven-digit dialing could be a particular challenge for 10-digit dialing, said Bridget Alexander White, staff director at industry consultancy JSI. Beyond public service announcements at state and federal levels, telcos likely will use social media, bill inserts and staff interactions with customers to get the word out about 10-digit dialing and 988, White said. She said once the FCC designated 988, JSI began recommending clients start that education. For small rural carriers, 988 comes atop robocall mitigation efforts they also will be working through, and communications of all the changes could be a challenge, White said.
Western Idaho's Humboldt Telephone notified 911 public safety answering points and directory publishers about the forthcoming changes and will start telling general customers in March, said General Manager Doug Musgrave. He said for Humboldt's 850 or so customers, that means bulk mailers, bill inserts and information on its website: "For a small company, it's kind of a daunting task."
Implementation itself shouldn't be a particularly difficult process because it's not much different from 10-digit dialing conversions when there's an area code split or overlay, Musgrave said. He said past overlays had the company investing in software updates and equipment replacements. He said unless a carrier has particularly old phone switches, 988 implementation shouldn't be "too big a deal." He said Humboldt did pre-provisioning several years ago to allow permissive 10-digit dialing but never turned it on, so it should be relatively easy for the carrier to verify translations remain accurate and start permissive dialing when the time comes. Telcos facing the most difficulty will be where 988 is local office code, and they will face “the most heartburn," Musgrave said.
Alaska's GCI Communications started an internal committee to address NANPA guidelines and identify and roll out the technical aspects for the transfer, said Heather Handyside, vice president-corporate communications and community engagement. She said GCI likely will do a phased messaging to customers, getting them used first to 10-digit dialing and then focusing on 988. "If you start too far in advance, the message may not stick," she said. With the state having high suicide rates, GCI gives $100,000 to nonprofits working in suicide prevention and will use them for some of its messaging about 988, along with working with Alaska native organizations issue newsletters to their memberships to reach some particularly rural and isolated communities, she said.
Implementing 988 dialing will require "moderate" investment in equipment upgrades for GCI, Handyside said. She said the carrier doesn't anticipate major challenges or difficulty in meeting the deadlines: "The FCC gave us a long runway on this one."