Emergency 911 networks appear largely to have withstood the powerful Hurricane Helene, officials said Friday. Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane Thursday at 11 p.m. in Taylor County, part of Florida’s Big Bend region, with maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour, the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Friday. After preparing for the massive storm (see 2409250048), telecom companies reported some damage to network infrastructure and said they are responding to problems that flooding and power outages caused.
All Illinois counties now have 911 services, the state police said Monday. “Stark County has finally reached the 21st Century with our 911,” said the county’s Sheriff Steven Sloan. Previously, Stark County residents had to call a specific, 10-digit number for emergency services. Those who called 911 would be routed through other counties’ systems. That will no longer be the case because Stark County entered into an agreement with Peoria County to create a joint emergency telephone system board, Illinois police said. “With the intergovernmental agreement between Stark and Peoria counties, each county in Illinois now has a comprehensive and coordinated 911 system,” said Illinois Statewide 911 Administrator Cindy Barbera-Brelle. Meanwhile, the state continues upgrading systems to next-generation 911, “which will provide increased services and better responses in an emergency,” she said. In Illinois, 158 of 179 public safety answering points have NG-911. A few rural areas across the U.S. still lack 911, a National Emergency Number Association spokesperson said Tuesday.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission is seeking information on E-911 costs for public safety answering points and dispatch centers, it said Thursday in a notice of inquiry (docket 2024-00249). A 2024 state law requires such reports annually. Comments are due Sept. 27.
Hundreds of commenters opposed a proposal from NextNav that would reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band and "enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2404160043). Amateur radio operators weighed in early and often (see 2408120024). Joining them were many other groups whose members use the band. Comments were due Thursday in docket 24-240. NextNav on Friday defended its petition seeking a rulemaking.
AT&T suffered a wireless outage Tuesday night that apparently started in the Southeast and spread throughout the U.S., based on social media and other reports. A software issue caused the outage, which was resolved, AT&T said Wednesday. The FCC is investigating, a spokesperson emailed.
A July order by the FCC rejecting a petition for reconsideration by the Competitive Carriers Association of the commission’s 2022 order rules to improve the delivery of outage information to public safety answering points (see 2211170051) is now effective, a Wednesday notice in the Federal Register said. CCA argued that it was unreasonable to require originating service providers (OSPs) to initially notify PSAPs of 911 outages within 30 minutes of discovering an outage, the notice said: The FCC found CCA’s arguments “unpersuasive and concluded that the Commission was reasonable in adding a time limit to the OSP notification rules.” The FCC also rejected CCA’s argument that the commission should create a centralized database “before OSPs would be required to exercise special diligence in maintaining PSAP contact information,” the notice said.
Seventy-eight Puerto Rican and three U.S. Virgin Islands’ municipalities remain in the disaster area of Tropical Storm Ernesto, the FCC said in Wednesday’s disaster information reporting system report (see 2408130047). No public safety answering points were reported down, though nearly 10% of cellsites in Puerto Rican affected counties were. The U.S. Virgin Islands reported 26.4% of cellsites down. Cable and wireline companies reported 287,294 subscribers without service in the disaster area. No TV or radio stations were said to be down.
Tropical Storm Debby knocked out cable and wireline service for 7,408 subscribers, an increase from 4,875 on Thursday, the FCC said in Friday’s disaster information reporting system report (see 2408060053). The FCC activated the mandatory disaster response initiative for 34 Virginia counties on Friday. The storm left .3% of North Carolina and .1% of South Carolina cellsites down, a slight improvement from Thursday. No public safety answering points or TV or radio stations were reported down.
Forty-four Florida and twenty-seven South Carolina counties remain in the disaster area of Tropical Storm Debby, the FCC said in Tuesday’s disaster information reporting system report (see 2408050040). The alert encompasses Tampa, Tallahasee, Jacksonville and Charleston. No public safety answering points were reported as down. In the affected counties, .9% of Florida and .4% of South Carolina cellsites were reported down, a slight improvement from Monday, and 22,422 cable and wireline subscribers are without service, a large improvement from 82,858 Monday. One Florida TV station and one FM station were reported down, along with one FM station redirected. Monday’s report listed two TV stations down.
The move to emergency services IP networks and the cloud is advancing how public safety answering points communicate, Matt Walsh, AT&T assistant vice president-FirstNet, blogged Monday. “By integrating the cloud directly into applications” that PSAPs use, “dispatchers can better assess each emergency more quickly than ever before,” he said. Walsh added that the cloud “provides a new level of flexibility for call handlers while still maintaining a high level of security.” In addition, “more centralized operations give PSAPs better system management and a faster implementation time.”