NENA CEO Warns of Growing Next-Generation 911 'Digital Divide'
The rollout of next-generation 911 to public safety answering points remains at the top of the agenda for the National Emergency Number Association and its members, CEO Brian Fontes said in an interview. NENA's annual meeting is this week in Grapevine, Texas. Fontes warned against a "patchwork" of service across the U.S.
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Some states, like California, are rolling out at a faster rate and some “haven’t really started,” Fontes said. If there's no federal funding for NG911 “we’ll have a have and have-not situation,” he said. NG911 could be a new version of the “digital divide,” he said. “We need to move everybody into a NG911 world,” he said. People should have “the same opportunities, the same quality of security” regardless of where they are, Fontes said. Improving 911 is also a matter of overall safety, beyond the individual placing the emergency call, he said.
“I certainly appeal to Congress to recognize ... the weak link in terms of technology and innovation with respect to public safety services,” Fontes said. Consumers have advanced technology “in their hands” and FirstNet is providing a new network for public safety agencies, he said. Right now, we have to “dummy down 911 calls to primarily voice, without data” and “we just lose a lot of information,” he said.
Fontes said it’s hard to predict what’s next from Congress on NG911. NENA was pleased the House Commerce Committee advanced the Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act, which provides up to $14.8 billion in future auction proceeds for NG911 (see 2305240069), he said. “It’s a challenge,” he said: “We hold out hope. … Every constituent of every member of Congress may need to dial 911.”
The FCC’s June NPRM on expediting the transition to NG911 (see 2306080043) was also good news for PSAPs, Fontes said. PSAPs want to make sure the technology works so they get NG911 calls after they update their systems, he said. “It was a unanimous vote by the commission and that’s encouraging,” he said.
911 call center staffing remains a problem “to say the least,” Fontes said. The job “requires a certain temperament, a certain skill set, and the ability to work under stress,” he said. Many become operators and decide the job isn’t for them or seek better pay, he said.
The government also needs to fix how the Bureau of Labor Statistics categorizes 911 operators, Fontes said. They’re currently classified as clerical or secretarial, and not as a protected service like other first responders, he said. Call takers get extensive training and often take college courses to do their jobs, he said: “To be misclassified by the federal government is just very unfortunate.”
PSAPs are still getting a flood of accidental calls, apparently tied to interface updates to some Android phones, NENA 911 and PSAP Operations Director April Heinze told us. NENA recently reported calls to 911 were up by as much as 30% in some locations (see 2306080030). A recent Android update turns on an emergency calling feature on mobile phones, unbeknownst to the owner, she said. NENA has been told a new release being rolled out should address the problem by late this month, she said. The call taker has to listen to the call to make sure nothing is wrong, then call the person back to ensure there’s not an emergency, Heinze said. Some PSAPs have to send first responders if they can’t make contact. “It becomes quite a nuisance,” she said. People need to stay on the line and tell the call taker it was a mistake when they accidently call 911, she said.
Years after the problem surfaced (see 1601200056), PSAPs still are getting nuisance calls on non-initialized phones -- old phones no longer part of a valid service plan that can still call 911, Heinze said. The problem “seems to kind of ebb and flow at times,” but it’s also “very difficult” for 911 centers to track those phones down because “you can’t call them back,” she said.
Heinze also stressed the need for more PSAP workers. The average call center is 30% below full staffing level, with some upward of 75%, she said. Once a center gets that far behind on staffing, it’s very difficult to catch up, she said. The length of time it takes to hire and train someone “is much higher than in a lot of other professions because 911 is ultimately a skilled trade -- it must be trained on the job,” she said. New hires take as long as a year to be able to work independently, she said.